Information processing apparatus, and method and information processing system

ABSTRACT

An information processing apparatus includes a first communication unit that receives management data including at least identification information of content data from a different device by using a first communication method. The apparatus also includes an output unit that outputs a first display based on the management information received by the first communication unit. Further, the apparatus includes a selection acceptation unit that accepts a selection of the content data according to a selection operation on the first display. The apparatus additionally includes a second communication that sends a request for the content data of which the selection acceptation unit accepts the selection to the different device and receives the content data corresponding to the request by using a second communication method whose communication range is wider than that of the first communication method.

CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of and claims the benefit of priorityunder 35 U.S.C. §120 from U.S. Ser. No. 13/444,530, filed Apr. 11, 2012which is a continuation of U.S. Ser. No. 12/182,418, filed Jul. 30, 2008(Now U.S. Pat. No. 8,175,529), and claims the benefit of priority under35 U.S.C. §119 from Japanese Patent Application JP 2007-206709 filed inthe Japan Patent Office on Aug. 8, 2007, the entire contents of both ofwhich being incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates to an information processing apparatus and methodand an information processing system, and more particularly to aninformation processing apparatus and method and an informationprocessing system by which information can be shared readily.

2. Description of the Related Art

A method of sharing information by carrying out communication betweendifferent apparatus using a predetermined communication method is in thepast available and disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-OpenNo. 2006-285716 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).

According to the method of Patent Document 1, when a user 12A creates atopic under a given title on an electronic bulletin board 33, a bulletinboard server 31 permits different users 12B and 12C to write into thetopic. When the different user 12B writes information of a content to berecommended into the topic along the title, a list indicative of therecommended content is outputted as a playlist to terminal apparatus 11Ato 11D of the users 12A to 12D from which the bulletin board server 31is accessed through a network 20. When a content included in theplaylist is designated, a content server 32 outputs the designatedcontent to the terminal apparatus of the user to which the playlist isoutputted.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, in order to share information, it is necessary to causedifferent users to recognize each other and exchange informationregarding information to be shared, and complicated operation isrequisite for setting for implementing information sharing.

Particularly in recent years, communication apparatus of the portabletype such as portable telephone sets and PDAs (Personal DigitalAssistants) have been popularized thanks to development of informationprocessing technologies. Most of such portable communication apparatusare small in size and low in operability. Therefore, such settingoperation as described above is more difficult with the portablecommunication apparatus. Further, since such portable communicationapparatus have high portability, also the mobility of the apparatusthemselves is high. Accordingly, the possibility that a portablecommunication apparatus may remain connected to one network for a longperiod of time is low, but the possibility that connection anddisconnection of communication may be repeated to construct variousnetworks with various opposite parties is high. In short, the updatingfrequency of the network or the communication apparatus to which theportable communication apparatus is connected is high, and there is thepossibility that a cumbersome setting operation for information sharingmay be demanded every time.

For example, in the case of the method of Patent Document 1, theelectronic bulletin board is sometimes referred to in order to obtaininformation to be shared. Further, in order to enrich the information ofthe electronic bulletin board, it is necessary to write information intothe electronic bulletin board. Furthermore, since the personality and soforth of a user who writes into the electronic bulletin board may not begrasped, there is the possibility that information inserted in theelectronic bulletin board may not coincide with the intention of theuser.

Where cumbersome operation is demanded for information sharing in thismanner, not only the information sharing is merely difficult, but alsothere is the possibility that this may result in decline of the desireof a user for information sharing. Further, there is the possibilitythat the usage efficiency of each apparatus and each information maydecline by declining the shared use of information.

Therefore, it is demanded to provide an information processing apparatusand method and an information processing system by which information canbe shared readily.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is providedan information processing apparatus for sharing content data with adifferent apparatus which has the content data and management dataincluding identification information of the content data and used formanagement of the content data, including management data acquisitionmeans for controlling a first communication section, which carries outproximity radio communication according to a first communication methodwherein the first communication section transfers information to andfrom the different apparatus while the different apparatus is positionedin the proximity of the information processing apparatus, to acquire themanagement data from the different apparatus, display control means forcontrolling a display section to display the management data acquired bythe management data acquisition means as image information, selectionoperation acceptance means for accepting a selection operation ofselecting the content data by selecting the management data displayed onthe display section under the control of the display control means,requesting means for controlling a second communication section, whichcarries out short distance radio communication according to a secondcommunication method different from the first proximity radiocommunication, to issue a request for the content data selected by theselection operation accepted by the selection operation acceptance meansto the different apparatus, and content data acquisition means forcontrolling the second communication section to acquire the content datasupplied in response to the request by the requesting means.

The information processing apparatus may further include storage controlmeans for controlling a storage section to store the management dataacquired by the management data acquisition means, the display controlmeans reading out the management data stored in the storage section fromthe storage section under the control of the storage control means so asto be displayed as image information on the display section.

In this instance, the information processing apparatus may be configuredsuch that the management data acquisition means further acquiresidentification information of the different apparatus from the differentapparatus, and the storage control means controls the storage section tostore the management data acquired by the management data acquisitionmeans in an associated relationship with the identification informationof the different apparatus.

In this instance, the information processing apparatus may be configuredsuch that the display control means controls the second communicationsection to decide whether or not the different apparatus exists within acommunication range according to the second communication method andcontrols, when the different apparatus does not exist within thecommunication range, the display section to display a display image ofthe management data stored in the associated relationship with theidentification information of the different apparatus in the storagesection in a changed form, and the selection operation acceptance meansinhibits selection of the management data whose display image isdisplayed in the changed form under the control of the display controlmeans.

The information processing apparatus may further include reproductionmeans for reproducing the content data acquired by the content dataacquisition means.

The information processing apparatus may be configured such that thecontent acquisition means acquires the content data as streaming data,and the information processing apparatus further includes reproductionmeans for reproducing the streaming data.

The information processing apparatus may further include a storagesection configured to store the content data and the management data forthe content data, management data supplying means for controlling thefirst communication section to supply the management data to thedifferent apparatus positioned in the proximity of the informationprocessing apparatus by the proximity radio communication according tothe first communication method, request acceptance means for controllingthe second communication section to accept a request for content datasupplied thereto from the different apparatus by the short distanceradio communication according to the second communication method, andcontent data supplying means for reading out the content data requestedby the request accepted by the request acceptance means from the storagesection and controlling the second communication section to supply theread out content data to the different apparatus of the source of therequest by the short distance radio communication according to thesecond communication method.

In this instance, the information processing apparatus may furtherinclude storage control means for controlling the storage section tostore only that part of the management data acquired by the managementdata acquisition means at which the management data do not overlap withthe management data stored in advance in the storage section.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information processing method for an information processingapparatus for sharing content data with a different apparatus which hasthe content data and management data including identificationinformation of the content data and used for management of the contentdata, including the steps of controlling a first communication section,which carries out proximity radio communication according to a firstcommunication method wherein the first communication section transfersinformation to and from the different apparatus while the differentapparatus is positioned in the proximity of the information processingapparatus, to acquire the management data from the different apparatus,controlling a display section to display the acquired management data asimage information, accepting a selection operation of selecting thecontent data by selecting the management data displayed on the displaysection, controlling a second communication section, which carries outshort distance radio communication according to a second communicationmethod different from the first proximity radio communication, to issuea request for the content data selected by the accepted selectionoperation to the different apparatus, and controlling the secondcommunication section to acquire the content data supplied in responseto the request by the requesting means.

In the information processing apparatus and the information processingmethod, the first communication section, which carries out proximityradio communication according to the first communication method whereinthe first communication section transfers information to and from thedifferent apparatus while the different apparatus is positioned in theproximity of the information processing apparatus, is controlled toacquire the management data from the different apparatus. Then, thedisplay section displays the acquired management data as imageinformation. Further, a selection operation of selecting the contentdata by selecting the management data displayed on the display sectionis accepted. Then, the second communication section, which carries outshort distance radio communication according to the second communicationmethod different from the first proximity radio communication, iscontrolled to issue a request for the content data selected by theaccepted selection operation to the different apparatus. Further, thesecond communication section is controlled to acquire the content datasupplied in response to the request.

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information processing apparatus for sharing content datawith a different apparatus, including a storage section configured tostore the content data and management data including identificationinformation of the content data and used for management of the contentdata, management data supplying means for controlling a firstcommunication section, which carries out proximity radio communicationaccording to a first communication method wherein the firstcommunication section transfers information to and from the differentapparatus while the different apparatus is positioned in the proximityof the information processing apparatus, to supply the management datato the different apparatus, request acceptance means for controlling asecond communication section, which carries out short distance radiocommunication according to a second communication method different fromthe first proximity radio communication, to accept a request for contentdata supplied thereto from the different apparatus, and content datasupplying means for reading out the content data requested by therequest accepted by the request acceptance means from the storagesection and controlling the second communication section to supply theread out content data to the different apparatus of the source of therequest.

According to a still further embodiment of the present invention, thereis provided an information processing method for an informationprocessing apparatus which includes a storage section in which contentdata and management data including identification information of thecontent data and used for management of the content data are stored inadvance and which is configured to share content data with a differentapparatus, including the steps of controlling a first communicationsection, which carries out proximity radio communication according to afirst communication method wherein the first communication sectiontransfers information to and from the different apparatus while thedifferent apparatus is positioned in the proximity of the informationprocessing apparatus, to supply the management data to the differentapparatus, controlling a second communication section, which carries outshort distance radio communication according to a second communicationmethod different from the first proximity radio communication, to accepta request for content data supplied thereto from the differentapparatus, and reading out the content data requested by the acceptedrequest from the storage section and controlling the secondcommunication section to supply the read out content data to thedifferent apparatus of the source of the request.

In the information processing apparatus and the information processingmethod, the first communication section, which carries out proximityradio communication according to the first communication method whereinthe first communication section transfers information to and from thedifferent apparatus while the different apparatus is positioned in theproximity of the information processing apparatus, is controlled tosupply the management data to the different apparatus. Then, the secondcommunication section, which carries out short distance radiocommunication according to the second communication method differentfrom the first proximity radio communication, is controlled to accept arequest for content data supplied thereto from the different apparatus.Then, the content data requested by the accepted request are read outfrom the storage section, and the second communication section iscontrolled to supply the read out content data to the differentapparatus of the source of the request.

According to a yet further embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information processing system including first and secondapparatus by which content data are to be shared, the first apparatusincluding management data acquisition means for controlling a firstcommunication section, which carries out proximity radio communicationaccording to a first communication method wherein the firstcommunication section transfers information to and from the secondapparatus while the second apparatus is positioned in the proximity ofthe first apparatus, to acquire management data including identificationinformation of the content data and used for management of the contentdata, display control means for controlling a display section to displaythe management data acquired by the management data acquisition means asimage information, selection operation acceptance means for accepting aselection operation of selecting the content data by selecting themanagement data displayed on the display section under the control ofthe display control means, requesting means for controlling a secondcommunication section, which carries out short distance radiocommunication according to a second communication method different fromthe first proximity radio communication, to issue a request for thecontent data selected by the selection operation accepted by theselection operation acceptance means to the second apparatus, andcontent data acquisition means for controlling the second communicationsection to acquire the content data supplied in response to the requestby the requesting means, and the second apparatus including a storagesection configured to store the content data and the management data forthe content data, management data supplying means for controlling athird communication section, which carries out the first proximity radiocommunication with the first apparatus positioned in the proximity ofthe second apparatus, to supply the management data read out from thestorage section, request acceptance means for controlling a fourthcommunication section, which carries out the second short distance radiocommunication, to accept a request for content data supplied theretofrom the first apparatus, and content data supplying means for readingout the content data requested by the request accepted by the requestacceptance means from the storage section and controlling the fourthcommunication section to supply the read out content data to the firstapparatus of the source of the request.

In the information processing system, in the first apparatus, the firstcommunication section, which carries out proximity radio communicationaccording to the first communication method wherein the firstcommunication section transfers information to and from the secondapparatus while the second apparatus is positioned in the proximity ofthe first apparatus, is controlled to acquire management data includingidentification information of the content data and used for managementof the content data. Then, the management data acquired by themanagement data acquisition means are displayed as image information onthe display section. Further, a selection operation of selecting thecontent data by selecting the management data displayed on the displaysection is accepted. Then, the second communication section, whichcarries out short distance radio communication according to the secondcommunication method different from the first proximity radiocommunication, is controlled to issue a request for the selected contentdata. Further, the second communication section is controlled to acquirethe content data supplied in response to the request. On the other hand,in the second apparatus, the third communication section, which carriesout the first proximity radio communication with the first apparatuspositioned in the proximity of the second apparatus, is controlled tosupply the management data read out from the storage section. Then, thefourth communication section, which carries out the second shortdistance radio communication, is controlled to accept a request forcontent data supplied thereto from the first apparatus. Further, thecontent data requested by the accepted request are read out from thestorage section, and the fourth communication section is controlled tosupply the read out content data to the first apparatus of the source ofthe request.

With the information processing apparatus and methods and theinformation processing system, information can be shared. Particularly,information can be shared readily.

The above and other features and advantages of the present inventionwill become apparent from the following description and the appendedclaims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in whichlike parts or elements denoted by like reference symbols.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing an example of a configuration of anetwork system to which the present invention is applied;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of an internalconfiguration of a portable telephone set shown in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3A, 3B and 3C are schematic views illustrating an example of amanner of exchange of playlists and sharing of music data;

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing an example of functionalblocks which the portable telephone set has;

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating an example of a configurationof data which the portable telephone set has;

FIG. 6 is a view illustrating an example of device setting information;

FIG. 7 is a view illustrating an example of user addition information;

FIG. 8 is a view illustrating an example of playlist information;

FIG. 9 is a view illustrating an example of musical compositioninformation;

FIG. 10 is a view illustrating an example of package information;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating an outline of playlist exchange;

FIGS. 12, 13, 14 and 15 are schematic views illustrating differentexamples of a display screen;

FIGS. 16 and 17 are diagrammatic views illustrating a manner of datastored in different portable telephone sets used in the network system;

FIGS. 18 and 19 are flow charts illustrating an example of a detailedflow of a playlist exchanging process;

FIGS. 20 and 21 are flow charts illustrating another example of adetailed flow of the playlist exchanging process;

FIG. 22 is a view illustrating an example of a configuration ofmanagement information;

FIG. 23 is a flow chart illustrating an outline of music data sharing;

FIG. 24 is a flow chart illustrating an example of a flow of a playlistdisplay control process;

FIG. 25 is a schematic view showing an example of a display screen;

FIGS. 26 and 27 are flow charts illustrating an example of a detailedflow of a music data sharing process; and

FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of apersonal computer to the present invention is applied.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Before a preferred embodiment of the present invention is described indetail, a corresponding relationship between several features recited inthe accompanying claims and particular elements of the preferredembodiment described below is described. The description, however, ismerely for the confirmation that the particular elements which supportthe invention as recited in the claims are disclosed in the descriptionof the embodiment of the present invention. Accordingly, even if someparticular element which is recited in description of the embodiment isnot recited as one of the features in the following description, thisdoes not signify that the particular element does not correspond to thefeature. On the contrary, even if some particular element is recited asan element corresponding to one of the features, this does not signifythat the element does not correspond to any other feature than theelement.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is providedan information processing apparatus (for example, a portable telephoneset 101 of FIG. 1) for sharing content data (for example, music data Bof FIGS. 3A to 3C) with a different apparatus (for example, a portabletelephone set B of FIGS. 3A to 3C) which has the content data andmanagement data (for example, a playlist B of FIGS. 3A to 3C) includingidentification information of the content data and used for managementof the content data, including management data acquisition means (forexample, a playlist exchange A control section 311 of FIG. 4 whichexecutes a process at step S106 of FIG. 11) for controlling a firstcommunication section (for example, an IC card section 218 of FIG. 2),which carries out proximity radio communication according to a firstcommunication method wherein the first communication section transfersinformation to and from the different apparatus while the differentapparatus is positioned in the proximity of the information processingapparatus, to acquire the management data from the different apparatus,display control means (for example, the playlist exchange A controlsection 311 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S432 of FIG. 24)for controlling a display section (for example, an outputting section212 of FIG. 4) to display the management data acquired by the managementdata acquisition means as image information, selection operationacceptance means (for example, the playlist exchange A control section311 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S402 of FIG. 23) foraccepting a selection operation of selecting the content data byselecting the management data displayed on the display section under thecontrol of the display control means, requesting means (for example, areception side reproduction processing control section 315 of FIG. 4which executes a process at step S404 of FIG. 23) for controlling asecond communication section (for example, a Bluetooth communicationsection 217 of FIG. 2), which carries out short distance radiocommunication according to a second communication method different fromthe first proximity radio communication, to issue a request for thecontent data selected by the selection operation accepted by theselection operation acceptance means to the different apparatus, andcontent data acquisition means (for example, the reception sidereproduction processing control section 315 of FIG. 4 which executes aprocess at step S406 of FIG. 23) for controlling the secondcommunication section to acquire the content data supplied in responseto the request by the requesting means.

The information processing apparatus may further include storage controlmeans (for example, the playlist exchange A control section 311 of FIG.4 which executes a process at step S266 of FIG. 19) for controlling astorage section (for example, a device memory 302 of FIG. 4) to storethe management data acquired by the management data acquisition means,the display control means reading out the management data stored in thestorage section from the storage section under the control of thestorage control means so as to be displayed as image information on thedisplay section.

In this instance, the information processing apparatus may be configuredsuch that the management data acquisition means further acquiresidentification information (for example, IC card production information451 of FIG. 11) of the different apparatus from the different apparatus,and the storage control means controls the storage section to store themanagement data acquired by the management data acquisition means in anassociated relationship with the identification information of thedifferent apparatus.

In this instance, the information processing apparatus may be configuredsuch that the display control means controls the second communicationsection to decide whether or not the different apparatus exists within acommunication range according to the second communication method andcontrols, when the different apparatus does not exist within thecommunication range, the display section to display a display image ofthe management data stored in the associated relationship with theidentification information of the different apparatus in the storagesection in a changed form (for example, at step S435 of FIG. 24), andthe selection operation acceptance means inhibits selection of themanagement data whose display image is displayed in the changed formunder the control of the display control means (for example, at stepS436 of FIG. 24).

The information processing apparatus may further include reproductionmeans (for example, a reception side player 342 of FIG. 4) forreproducing the content data acquired by the content data acquisitionmeans.

The information processing apparatus may be configured such that thecontent acquisition means acquires the content data as streaming data,and the information processing apparatus further includes reproductionmeans (for example, the reception side player 342 of FIG. 4) forreproducing the streaming data.

The information processing apparatus may further include a storagesection (for example, the device memory 302 of FIG. 4) for storing thecontent data and the management data for the content data, managementdata supplying means (for example, the playlist exchange A controlsection 311 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S276 of FIG. 19)for controlling the first communication section to supply the managementdata to the different apparatus positioned in the proximity of theinformation processing apparatus by the proximity radio communicationaccording to the first communication method, request acceptance means(for example, a transmission side reproduction processing controlsection 314 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S412 of FIG. 23)for accepting a request for content data supplied thereto from thedifferent apparatus by the short distance radio communication accordingto the second communication method, and content data supplying means(for example, the transmission side reproduction processing controlsection 314 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S415 of FIG. 23)for reading out the content data requested by the request accepted bythe request acceptance means from the storage section and controllingthe second communication section to supply the read out content data tothe different apparatus of the source of the request by the shortdistance radio communication according to the second communicationmethod.

In this instance, the information processing apparatus may furtherinclude storage control means (for example, the playlist exchange Acontrol section 311 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S266 ofFIG. 19) for controlling the storage section to store only that part ofthe management data acquired by the management data acquisition means atwhich the management data do not overlap with the management data storedin advance in the storage section.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information processing method for an information processingapparatus for sharing content data with a different apparatus which hasthe content data and management data including identificationinformation of the content data and used for management of the contentdata, including the steps of controlling a first communication section,which carries out proximity radio communication according to a firstcommunication method wherein the first communication section transfersinformation to and from the different apparatus while the differentapparatus is positioned in the proximity of the information processingapparatus, to acquire the management data from the different apparatus(for example, at step S106 of FIG. 11), controlling a display section todisplay the acquired management data as image information (for example,at step S432 of FIG. 24), accepting a selection operation of selectingthe content data by selecting the management data displayed on thedisplay section (for example, at step S402 of FIG. 23), controlling asecond communication section, which carries out short distance radiocommunication according to a second communication method different fromthe first proximity radio communication, to issue a request for thecontent data selected by the accepted selection operation to thedifferent apparatus (for example, at step S404 of FIG. 23), andcontrolling the second communication section to acquire the content datasupplied in response to the request by the requesting means (forexample, at step S406 of FIG. 23).

According to a further embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information processing apparatus (for example, a portabletelephone set 101 of FIG. 1) for sharing content data (for example,music data B of FIGS. 3A to 3C) with a different apparatus (for example,a portable telephone set B of FIGS. 3A to 3C), including a storagesection (for example, a device memory 302 of FIG. 4) for storing thecontent data and management data (for example, a playlist B of FIGS. 3Ato 3C) including identification information of the content data and usedfor management of the content data, management data supplying means (forexample, a playlist exchange B control section 312 which executes aprocess at step S371 of FIG. 21) for controlling a first communicationsection (for example, an IC card section 218 of FIG. 2), which carriesout proximity radio communication according to a first communicationmethod wherein the first communication section transfers information toand from the different apparatus while the different apparatus ispositioned in the proximity of the information processing apparatus, tosupply the management data to the different apparatus, requestacceptance means (for example, a transmission side reproductionprocessing control section 314 of FIG. 4 which executes a process atstep S412 of FIG. 23) for controlling a second communication section(for example, a Bluetooth communication section 217 of FIG. 2), whichcarries out short distance radio communication according to a secondcommunication method different from the first proximity radiocommunication, to accept a request for content data supplied theretofrom the different apparatus, and content data supplying means (forexample, the transmission side reproduction processing control section314 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S415 of FIG. 23) forreading out the content data requested by the request accepted by therequest acceptance means from the storage section and controlling thesecond communication section to supply the read out content data to thedifferent apparatus of the source of the request.

According to a still further embodiment of the present invention, thereis provided an information processing method for an informationprocessing apparatus which includes a storage section in which contentdata and management data including identification information of thecontent data and used for management of the content data are stored inadvance and which is configured to share content data with a differentapparatus, including the steps of controlling a first communicationsection, which carries out proximity radio communication according to afirst communication method wherein the first communication sectiontransfers information to and from the different apparatus while thedifferent apparatus is positioned in the proximity of the informationprocessing apparatus, to supply the management data to the differentapparatus (for example, at step S371 of FIG. 21), controlling a secondcommunication section, which carries out short distance radiocommunication according to a second communication method different fromthe first proximity radio communication, to accept a request for contentdata supplied thereto from the different apparatus (for example, at stepS412 of FIG. 23), and reading out the content data requested by theaccepted request from the storage section and controlling the secondcommunication section to supply the read out content data to thedifferent apparatus of the source of the request (for example, at stepS415 of FIG. 23).

According to a yet further embodiment of the present invention, there isprovided an information processing system (for example, a network system100 of FIG. 1) including first and second apparatus (for example,portable telephone sets A and B of FIGS. 3A to 3C, respectively) bywhich content data (for example, music data A and B of FIGS. 3A to 3C)are to be shared, the first apparatus including management dataacquisition means (for example, a playlist exchange A control section311 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S106 of FIG. 11) forcontrolling a first communication section (for example, an IC cardsection 218 of FIG. 2), which carries out proximity radio communicationaccording to a first communication method wherein the firstcommunication section transfers information to and from the secondapparatus while the second apparatus is positioned in the proximity ofthe first apparatus, to acquire management data including identificationinformation of the content data and used for management of the contentdata, display control means (for example, the playlist exchange Acontrol section 311 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S432 ofFIG. 24) for controlling a display section (for example, an outputtingsection 212 of FIG. 4) to display the management data acquired by themanagement data acquisition means as image information, selectionoperation acceptance means (for example, the playlist exchange A controlsection 311 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S402 of FIG. 23)for accepting a selection operation of selecting the content data byselecting the management data displayed on the display section under thecontrol of the display control means, requesting means (for example, areception side reproduction processing control section 315 of FIG. 4which executes a process at step S404 of FIG. 23) for controlling asecond communication section (for example, a Bluetooth communicationsection 217 of FIG. 2), which carries out short distance radiocommunication according to a second communication method different fromthe first proximity radio communication, to issue a request for thecontent data selected by the selection operation accepted by theselection operation acceptance means to the second apparatus, andcontent data acquisition means (for example, the reception sidereproduction processing control section 315 of FIG. 4 which executes aprocess at step S406 of FIG. 23) for controlling the secondcommunication section to acquire the content data supplied in responseto the request by the requesting means, the second apparatus including astorage section (for example, the device memory 302 of FIG. 4) forstoring the content data and the management data for the content data,management data supplying means (for example, a playlist exchange Bcontrol section 312 of FIG. 4 which executes a process at step S371 ofFIG. 21) for controlling a third communication section (for example, anIC card section 218 of FIG. 2), which carries out the first proximityradio communication with the first apparatus positioned in the proximityof the second apparatus, to supply the management data read out from thestorage section, request acceptance means (for example, a transmissionside reproduction processing control section 314 of FIG. 4 whichexecutes a process at step S412 of FIG. 23) for controlling a fourthcommunication section (for example, the Bluetooth communication section217 of FIG. 2), which carries out the second short distance radiocommunication, to accept a request for content data supplied theretofrom the first apparatus, and content data supplying means (for example,the transmission side reproduction processing control section 314 ofFIG. 4 which executes a process at step S415 of FIG. 23) for reading outthe content data requested by the request accepted by the requestacceptance means from the storage section and controlling the fourthcommunication section to supply the read out content data to the firstapparatus of the source of the request.

In the following, a preferred embodiment of the present invention isdescribed.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a configuration of a network system to whichthe present invention is applied.

Referring to FIG. 1, the network system 100 shown is composed of aplurality of apparatus and allows information to be shared readilybetween different apparatus. In particular, a terminal apparatus of thenetwork system 100 causes music data which a different apparatus has tobe transmitted as streaming data of a format in which the music data canbe reproduced sequentially while they are acquired, that is, to bestreaming reproduced. Then, while the terminal apparatus acquires thestreaming data, it outputs the streaming data as sound. On the contrary,the terminal apparatus streaming reproduces music data owned by theterminal apparatus itself and supplies the streaming data to a differentapparatus such that the music data are outputted sequentially as soundfrom the different apparatus. In short, the network system 100 allowssharing of music data.

The music data is content data obtained by conversion of a sound signalof music which is a content. Naturally, the music data is not restrictedin terms of the number, substance, time, sound volume, data amount andother features of musical compositions. The music data may have anysubstance. It is to be noted that a musical composition here may includenot only play sound of a musical instrument but also any sound signalincluding voice of a human being, sound of the natural world andartificially created sound. Although music data is sold as hereinafterdescribed, basically it is sold in a unit of a musical composition. Itis to be noted that a plurality of musical compositions may be soldcollectively as a package.

Components of the network system 100 between which music data are sharedtransfer or exchange data called playlist. A playlist is metadata orrelating information including the substance or a musical composition ofmusic data which are shared, that is, shared data and informationrelating to the data themselves and is management data utilized formanagement of content data. Although details are hereinafter described,the playlist includes identification information of a musicalcomposition such as an ID or the title.

Although details are hereinafter described, a transferred playlist isdisplayed, for example, as a GUI (Graphical User Interface). If the userselects a musical composition to be reproduced from within the playlist,then streaming reproduction of the selected musical composition, thatis, sharing of music data, is carried out.

A portable telephone set 101 shown in FIG. 1 is a terminal apparatus ofthe network system 100 by which such sharing of music data as describedabove is carried out. The portable telephone set 101 has a communicationfunction of establishing a connection to a public telephone networkthrough a base station using a radio communication function thereof tocarry out music communication with a different telephone set. Theportable telephone set 101 further has a packet communication functionof establishing a connection to the Internet through the publictelephone network to carry out packet communication with a differentcommunication apparatus. The portable telephone set 101 can utilize thepacket communication function to establish a connection to andcommunicate with, for example, a WEB server 141, a music selling server142, an SNS server 143, a mail distribution server 144 or the likethrough a network 131 formed from one or a plurality of networks such asa public telephone network or the Internet.

For example, the portable telephone set 101 can establish a connectionto the WEB server 141 to acquire or receive supply of a playlist ormusic data from a WEB site provided by the WEB server 141. Further, theportable telephone set 101 can establish a connection, for example, tothe music selling server 142 to purchase and acquire music data of amusic selling site provided by the music selling server 142.Furthermore, the portable telephone set 101 can log in an SNS (SocialNetwork Site) provided by the SNS server 143 to acquire a playlistprovided by a different user or a manager from the SNS. Further, theportable telephone set 101 can acquire an electronic mail distributedfrom the mail distribution server 144 and having a playlist describedtherein or having a playlist annexed thereto.

Further, the portable telephone set 101 has a digital camera function ofpicking up an image of an image pickup object and obtain image data ofthe picked up image, and a QR code decoding function of decoding a QR(Quick Response) code, which is a two-dimensional code symbol picked upby the digital camera function to obtain information included in the QRcode. The portable telephone set 101 can utilize the digital camerafunction to pick up an image of a QR code 122 printed or displayed on adevice 121 shown in FIG. 1 and utilize the QR code decoding function toextract and retain a playlist included in the picked up QR code 122. Forexample, if a playlist is extracted by the QR code decoding function,then an application for sharing music data is started, and an extractedplaylist is stored into and managed in a storage section.

It is to be noted that the device 121 may be any device only if itpresents the QR code 122 and may be, for example, a wall of a building,a housing of an apparatus, a printed matter such as a poster or amagazine, a monitor such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) apparatus oran organic EL (Electroluminescence) display apparatus.

The portable telephone set 101 further has a wire communication functionof communicating with another apparatus connected thereto by a wireconnection using predetermined wire communication standards represented,for example, by the USB (Universal Serial Bus) or the IEEE (Institute ofElectrical and Electronic Engineers) 1394. The portable telephone set101 can use the wire communication function to communicate with apersonal computer 104 (hereinafter referred to as PC 104) connected tothe portable telephone set 101 by a wire connection. For example, theportable telephone set 101 can acquire a playlist or music data from thePC 104 connected by a wire connection thereto through a communicationcable.

Consequently, the portable telephone set 101 can readily acquire musicdata purchased through and accumulated in the PC 104 or music dataproduced using the PC 104, a playlist of such music data and so forth.

It is to be noted that the method of acquiring a playlist or music datamay be any other than the method described above. For example, aplaylist or music data may be transferred through a removable mediumsuch as a flash memory. The portable telephone set 101 can also producea playlist of music data retained therein in accordance with a userinstruction or automatically in accordance with a predeterminedcondition.

As described above, the portable telephone set 101 can acquire aplaylist or music data readily by an arbitrary method.

The portable telephone set 101 stores the playlist or music dataacquired in such a manner as described above as data which belong to theportable telephone set 101 itself. The portable telephone set 101 canexchange playlists with a different apparatus to transfer music dataowned by them as streaming data based on the playlists. In short, theportable telephone set 101 and the different apparatus substantiallyshare the music data or musical compositions.

It is to be noted that the portable telephone set 101 need notnecessarily store music data of musical compositions corresponding to aplaylist to be exchanged.

For example, the playlist of the portable telephone set 101 may includeinformation of supplying sources of musical compositions or music datacorresponding thereto. For example, the playlist may include the URL(Uniform Resource Locator) of a site from which the music data areprovided. In such an instance, since the portable telephone set 101 canacquire a musical composition or music data corresponding to theplaylist at an arbitrary timing in principle based on the informationmentioned, this is, to the portable telephone set 101, substantiallyequivalent to the fact that the music data are stored in the portabletelephone set 101. Accordingly, the portable telephone set 101 canexchange such a playlist as described above with a different apparatus.

It is to be noted, however, that, since the portable telephone set 101does not actually have music data stored therein, it may not carry outstreaming data immediately. Accordingly, when a reproduction instructionis received, preferably the portable telephone set 101 acquires themusic data, or such reproduction request for music data is inhibited.

It is to be noted that the portable telephone set 101 is basically in astate wherein it does not store the playlist acquired from the oppositeparty of exchange of playlists nor musical compositions or music datacorresponding to the playlist, that is, the musical compositions ormusic data are stored in or can be acquired by the opposite partyapparatus. The portable telephone set 101 inhibits exchange of theplaylist acquired by the exchange with the different apparatus with afurther apparatus. In other words, the portable telephone set 101 doesnot set a play apparatus acquired by exchange and belonging to anotherapparatus as an object of exchange. To this end, the portable telephoneset 101 manages a playlist acquired by exchange in an associatedrelationship with the opposite party of the exchange and distinguishesthe playlist from a playlist acquired from any other apparatus byexchange as well as from the playlist belonging to the portabletelephone set 101 itself.

The portable telephone set 101 has an IC card function of thecontactless type, a reader/writer function for an IC card, and aBluetooth communication function.

The IC card is a device of the card type which includes a built-in ICchip or semiconductor integrated circuit for storage of information andmathematical operation and can record information into the IC chip.Usually, the IC card can record data of a greater amount than a magneticcard and is higher in security against falsification of data and forgeryof the card, and is applied, for example, to an electronic money and atelephone card. The IC card communicates with a compatible reader/writerto supply information stored in the IC chip to the reader/writer orstore data supplied from the reader/writer into the IC chip. An IC cardof the contactless type makes use of wireless or radio communication tocarry out transfer or communication of such data without contacting withthe device. Thus, the IC card of the contactless type (and thereader/writer) has an antenna for wireless communication in addition tothe IC chip.

The IC card function signifies such functions of an IC card as describedabove, that is, the radio communication function, data retainingfunction, information processing function and so forth. In other words,the portable telephone set 101 has a built-in configuration of an ICcard. Although details are hereinafter described, the portable telephoneset 101 not only has a built-in IC card but also allows transfer of databetween the IC card and the other components thereof and cooperation ofthe IC card and the other components to execute processing.

The communication distance of the radio communication of the IC cardfunction does not have any particular limitation but may be anydistance. For example, the IC card function may be not of thecontactless type but of the contact type, or in other words, thecommunication distance may be 0 m. In the following, it is assumed thatthe communication distance is a very short distance of approximately 10cm or less. A contactless IC card having a very short communicationdistance has been popularized most at present and can be developedreadily. Further, since the contactless IC card can communicate in acontactless condition, it is easy to maintain the posture thereof duringcommunication and stabilized communication can be implemented readily.Furthermore, since the communication distance is limited to the veryshort distance, it is easy to specify the opposite party of thecommunication, and besides since operation for execution of thecommunication is clear, occurrence of unintended communication can bereduced.

The reader/writer function for an IC card is one of functions which thereader/writer described above has and is a function of reading outinformation stored in the IC card and writing information into the ICcard.

Generally, an IC card can communicate only with a reader/writer, but maynot communicate with another IC card. In other words, in the very shortdistance radio communication, one of the parties of the communicationhas to have a reader/writer function. The portable telephone set 101 hasboth of the IC card function and the reader/writer function. Inparticular, the portable telephone set 101 can supply informationretained by the IC card function to another reader/writer or anotherdevice having the reader/writer function. Further, the portabletelephone set 101 can use the reader/writer function to read outinformation from another IC card or another device having the IC cardfunction.

The Bluetooth function is a function of carrying out Bluetoothcommunication which is one of short distance radio communicationtechniques. It is to be noted that the short distance here signifies adistance shorter than approximately 10 m. Thus, the Bluetooth functionhas a communication distance longer than that of the very short distanceradio communication by the IC card function or reader/writer function.Accordingly, the degree of freedom in the position and the posture ofthe portable telephone set 101 is enhanced in comparison with that basedon communication by the IC card function. Further, the Bluetoothfunction is generally higher in communication speed than the IC cardfunction and can transfer a large amount of data in a shorter period oftime.

The portable telephone set 101 exchanges or transfers playlists to andfrom a different apparatus by the very short distance radiocommunication by the IC card function and the reader/writer function.Further, the portable telephone set 101 carries out sharing of musicdata with a different apparatus using the Bluetooth communicationfunction, that is, transfer of streaming data to and from a differentapparatus.

For example, the portable telephone set 101 can carry out exchange ofplaylists and sharing of music data with another portable telephone set102 having similar functions. In the portable telephone set 102, aplaylist and music data acquired by a similar method to that by theportable telephone set 101 described hereinabove are stored as databelonging to the portable telephone set 102. The portable telephone set101 and the portable telephone set 102 can exchange their playlists bythe very short distance radio communication using the IC card function(and the reader/writer function) and share music data by Bluetoothcommunication.

Further, for example, the portable telephone set 101 can carry outexchange of playlists and sharing of music data with a personal computer103 (hereinafter referred to as PC 103) having a reader/writer 111compatible with the IC card function which the portable telephone set101 has and a Bluetooth communication section 112 (hereinafter referredto as BT communication section 112) having the Bluetooth function. Theportable telephone set 101 can exchange playlists with the PC 103through the reader/writer 111. Further, the portable telephone set 101can share music data with the PC 103 by communicating streaming datathrough the BT communication section 112.

Further, for example, the portable telephone set 101 can supply aplaylist to an audio device 105 for a car audio system or the like andcan supply streaming data of music data stored in the portable telephoneset 101 to the audio device 105 having a high output performance so thatsound can be outputted from the audio device 105.

Though not shown, the audio device 105 has a reader/writer functioncompatible with the IC card function which the portable telephone set101 has, and a Bluetooth communication function. The portable telephoneset 101 uses the IC card function to supply the playlist thereof to theaudio device 105 by the very short distance radio communication. If theuser operates the audio device 105 to select music data stored in theportable telephone set 101 from within the playlist displayed as a GUIimage, then streaming data of the music data is supplied from theportable telephone set 101 to the audio device 105 by the Bluetoothcommunication function. In this manner, when the portable telephone set101 reproduces music data stored in the portable telephone set 101,sound of high quality can be outputted from the audio device 105 of ahigh performance.

While, in the foregoing description, exchange of playlists is carriedout by the very short distance radio communication using the IC card andthe reader/writer function and transfer of streaming data of music datais carried out by the short distance radio communication using theBluetooth communication function, exchange of playlists or transfer ofstreaming data of music data may be carried out using any communicationfunction. For example, the portable telephone set 101 may exchangeplaylists with a different device connected thereto by a wire connectionby wire communication. In particular, the portable telephone set 101 canexchange playlists with the PC 104 connected thereto by wire connectionand transfer streaming data of music data.

By sharing music data between different apparatus or users in such amanner as described above, information property such as a playlist andmusic data can be utilized effectively.

For example, since a playlist is information of musical compositionsbasically collected by a user, it is also liking information of theuser. Accordingly, exchange of playlists exchanges liking information ofthe users as well as exchanges information only of musical compositions.In other words, since it is possible for a user to provide informationof the user itself to the opposite party of exchange or come to knowinformation of the opposite party as in the case of exchange of cards,the exchanging operation of playlists can become communication meansbetween users.

Then, in order to materialize exchange of playlists, a relationship oftrust between users is significant. In short, by exchanging playlists, arelationship of trust between users can be confirmed. In other words, byconfirming a relationship of trust between users by an exchangingoperation of playlists, it is possible to further strengthen therelationship of trust between the users.

Further, since a playlist indicates the liking of its user, byexchanging the playlists, also those music compositions which do notconform to the liking of the user can be shared. In particular, where acertain user collects musical compositions based on the liking of theuser itself, the collected musical compositions may be one-sided to acertain genre or the like. Further, since the information collectioncapability of an individual is limited, even if a musical compositionconforms to the liking, it may not always be acquired. Sharing of musicdata can reduce such one-sidedness or shortage as described above.Furthermore, sharing of music data not only allows mere sharing of databut also can present a new musical composition to a user to enhance thedesire of the user for acquisition or purchase.

Further, sharing of music data makes it possible to easily change anapparatus from which sound is to be outputted, diversifies areproduction operation of music data and enhances the entertainingproperty together with the convenience. For example, if playlists ofmusic data stored in different portable telephone sets of a plurality ofusers are supplied to and registered into one audio device, then musicdata stored in the portable telephone sets can be outputted as soundfrom the audio device. In particular, it is possible to easily achievesuch a situation that a plurality of users meet with their musicalcompositions and listen to and enjoy the musical compositions as well asit is possible to output sound from an arbitrary apparatus which canshare music data.

Now, the portable telephone set 101 which functions as a terminalapparatus of the network system 100 having such a configuration asdescribed above is described. FIG. 2 shows an example of an internalconfiguration of the portable telephone set 101.

Referring to FIG. 2, the portable telephone set 101 includes a centralprocessing unit (hereinafter referred to as CPU) 201 which is amathematical operation processing section and executes a softwareprogram to execute value processes. The CPU 201 is connected to a readonly memory (hereinafter referred to as ROM) 202 and a random accessmemory (hereinafter referred to as RAM) 203 through a bus 204. The ROM202 stores software programs and data beforehand. The software programsand data stored in the ROM 202 and a storage section 213 are loaded intothe RAM 203. Also data and so forth necessary for the CPU 201 to executevarious processes are suitably stored into the RAM 203.

The CPU 201, ROM 202 and RAM 203 are connected to each other by the bus204. Also an input/output interface 210 is connected to the bus 204.

An inputting section 211 including a keyboard, a mouse and so forth, anoutputting section 212 including a display unit such as a CRT (CathodeRay Tube) display apparatus or an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display)apparatus, a speaker and so forth, and a storage section 213 formed froma hard disk and so forth are connected to the input/output interface210. Further, a telephone network communication section 214 formed froma modem or the like and configured to carry out sound communication orpacket communication with a different apparatus through a publictelephone network is connected to the input/output interface 210.

In addition to the telephone network communication section 214, a camerasection 215 having a digital camera function of picking up an image ofan image pickup object to obtain image data of the image pickup objectand a wire communication section 216 for carrying out wire communicationwith the opposite party connected thereto by a wire cable ofpredetermined standards such as the USB are connected to theinput/output interface 210. Also a Bluetooth communication section 217having the Bluetooth communication function and an IC card section 218having the IC card function and the reader/writer function are connectedto the input/output interface 210.

The Bluetooth communication section 217 can acquire data read out fromthe ROM 202, RAM 203 or storage section 213 through the input/outputinterface 210 and supply the data to the opposite party of the Bluetoothcommunication. Further, the Bluetooth communication section 217 cansupply data acquired from the opposite party of communication to the RAM203, storage section 213 or the like through the input/output interface210 so as to be retained.

The IC card section 218 has the reader/writer function as well as the ICcard function and can carry out the very short distance radiocommunication with an IC card or an apparatus having the IC cardfunction as well as with a reader/writer or an apparatus having thereader/writer function. The IC card section 218 has an internal storagesection formed from a semiconductor memory or the like and can retaindata and supply information to the opposite party of communication bythe very short distance radio communication. Further, the IC cardsection 218 can acquire data read out from the ROM 202, RAM 203 orstorage section 213 through the input/output interface 210 and supplythe data to the opposite party of communication. Furthermore, the ICcard section 218 can supply data acquired from the opposite party ofcommunication to the RAM 203, storage section 213 or the like throughthe input/output interface 210 so as to be retained.

The telephone network communication section 214, camera section 215,wire communication section 216, Bluetooth communication section 217 andIC card section 218 may be formed as a communication section 231 whichtransfers playlists, music data, device information, user informationand so froth. For the transfer of such data, an arbitrary method, thatis, an arbitrary communication method, may be used, and a methoddifferent from the method described above may be used. In other words,the IC card section 218 may be configured including an additionalcomponent to the components 214 to 218 described above, or some or allof the components 214 to 218 may be omitted if communication is possibleby some method.

A drive 219 is connected to the input/output interface 210 as occasiondemands, and a removable medium 221 such as a magnetic disk, an opticaldisk, a magneto-optical disk or a semiconductor memory is suitablyloaded into the drive 219 such that a computer program read out from theremovable medium 221 is installed into the storage section 213 asoccasion demands.

Now, exchange of a playlist and sharing of music data by the portabletelephone set 101 having such a configuration as described above aredescribed. First, sharing of music data by two portable telephone setshaving similar configurations and similar functions to each other likethe portable telephone set 101 and the portable telephone set 102 isdescribed with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3C.

As described hereinabove, exchange of playlists is carried out using thevery short distance radio communication by the IC card function and thereader/writer function. In the following description, the portabletelephone set on the side which uses the reader/writer function toestablish a connection, that is, on the side which issues a request forexchange of playlists, is referred to as portable telephone set A. Onthe other hand, the portable telephone set on the side which uses the ICcard function and to which the portable telephone set A is connected,that is, on the side which responds to the exchanging request ofplaylists, is hereinafter referred to as portable telephone set B.

Referring first to FIG. 3A, the portable telephone set A has storedtherein in advance a playlist A belonging to the portable telephone setA itself and music data A of musical compositions corresponding to theplaylist A. Similarly, the portable telephone set B has stored thereinin advance a playlist B belonging to the portable telephone B itself andmusic data B of musical compositions corresponding to the playlist B.

The portable telephone set A on the side which requests for exchange ofplaylists is set to a polling mode and is moved to approach the portabletelephone set B as seen in FIG. 3B. When the portable telephone set Aand the portable telephone set B approach each other into a region inwhich they can communicate with each other to establish a connection,exchange of playlists is carried out. In particular, the portabletelephone set A supplies the playlist A to the portable telephone set Band acquires the playlist B from the portable telephone set B and storesand manages the playlist B in an associated relationship with theportable telephone set B. As a result, the portable telephone set Aretains the playlist A retained from the beginning therein, the playlistB acquired newly, and the music data A corresponding to the playlist A.

On the contrary, the portable telephone set B supplies the playlist B tothe portable telephone set A and acquires the playlist A from theportable telephone set A and then stores and manages the playlist A inan associated relationship with the portable telephone set A. As aresult, the portable telephone set B retains the playlist B retainedfrom the beginning therein, the playlist A acquired newly and the musicdata B corresponding to the playlist B.

In this manner, when a playlist which is information representative ofcharacteristics of an individual user is to be exchanged, in order toavoid unintended exchange, such a communication method that the oppositeparty of communication can be indicated clearly such that apparatuswhich are to be communicated with each other are approached sufficientlyas in the case of the very short distance radio communication describedhereinabove is preferably used.

It is to be noted that usually the antenna of the IC card section 218utilized for the very short distance radio communication is provided inthe inside of a housing of the portable telephone set but is not exposedto the outer face of the housing. Accordingly, since such IC cardsections 218 of different apparatus do not contact with each other atall, upon exchange of playlists, the apparatus may be contacted witheach other, which is similar to making the apparatus approach eachother.

If, in this state, the user selects a musical composition to bereproduced from within the playlist B, then the portable telephone set Autilizes the Bluetooth communication to issue a reproduction request forthe selected musical composition or music data to the portable telephoneset B as seen in FIG. 3C. The portable telephone set B streamingreproduces the music data B in response to the request and supplies thestreaming data to the portable telephone set A using the Bluetoothcommunication. The portable telephone set A reproduces the streamingdata and outputs sound of the streaming data. Naturally, it is possiblefor the portable telephone set B to issue a request for reproduction ofthe music data A to the portable telephone set A conversely. In otherwords, the portable telephone set A and the portable telephone set B canshare the music data owned by them, that is, can share the music data Aand the music data B, by such exchange of the playlists of them betweenthem.

It is to be noted, however, that, in order to share music data, it isnecessary for the portable telephone set A and the portable telephoneset B to be positioned within a communication range of the Bluetoothcommunication.

The portable telephone set A and the portable telephone set B displaythe playlists as a GUI on the screen thereof. The user of the portabletelephone set 101 would operate the GUI to select a musical compositionor music data to be reproduced from within the displayed playlists. If amusical composition is selected, then the portable telephone set 101specifies where the musical composition or music data corresponding tothe playlist exists. Then, if the portable telephone set 101 itself hasthe musical composition or music data therein, then it reproduces thesame and outputs sound. On the other hand, if the music data selected bythe user exists in the opposite party apparatus, then the portabletelephone set 101 issues a request for streaming reproduction of themusic data to the opposite party apparatus. At this time, if theopposite party apparatus does not exist within the communication range,then the portable telephone set 101 may not reproduce the musicalcomposition. Therefore, it is preferable for the portable telephone set101 to detect, before it displays the playlists as a GUI, a differentapparatus within the communication range and then set so that theplaylist which the apparatus which is not detected has may not beselected by the user.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a configuration of functional blocks providedin the portable telephone set 101 for implementing such exchange ofplaylists and sharing of music data as described above.

Referring to FIG. 4, the portable telephone set 101 includes a devicecontrol section 301 for controlling the entire portable telephone set101. The device control section 301 is a block implemented by the CPU201, ROM 202, RAM 203, bus 204 and so forth shown in FIG. 2. The devicecontrol section 301 includes a playlist exchange A control section 311,a playlist exchange B control section 312, a display control section313, a transmission side reproduction processing control section 314,and a reception side reproduction processing control section 315.

The playlist exchange A control section 311 is a control section on theside which issues a request for exchange of playlists, that is, whichcontrols processes relating to playlist exchange of the portabletelephone set A in the example of FIGS. 3A to 3C. The playlist exchangeB control section 312 is a control section on the side which receives arequest for exchange of playlists, that is, which controls processesrelating to playlist exchange of the portable telephone set B in theexample of FIGS. 3A to 3C. The display control section 313 is a controlsection which controls display of, for example, playlists and so forth.The transmission side reproduction processing control section 314 is aprocessing section which controls a transmission side reproductionprocess of streaming reproducing music data in accordance with a requestfrom a different apparatus. The reception side reproduction processingcontrol section 315 is a control section which controls a reception sidereproduction process of receiving and reproducing streaming datatransmitted thereto from a different apparatus to output sound.

Further, the portable telephone set 101 has a device memory 302 as astorage area thereof. The device memory 302 is a functional blockimplemented by the RAM 203 and/or the storage section 213 describedhereinabove with reference to FIG. 2. The device memory 302 has astorage area separate from the storage area of the IC card function andhaving a storage capacity greater than the memory capacity of the ICcard section 218. The device memory 302 stores a large amount of dataincluding a playlist, music data and so forth.

Further, the portable telephone set 101 has, as the IC card section 218,an IC card control section 321, an IC card memory 322 and an antennasection 323. The IC card control section 321 carries out controlprocesses for implementing the IC card function. The IC card memory 322is a storage area for implementing the data retaining function by the ICcard function. The antenna section 323 is an antenna for transmittingand receiving a signal in the very short distance radio communication bythe IC card function. The antenna section 323 transmits informationsupplied from the IC card control section 321, and receives informationsupplied thereto from the outside by the very short distance radiocommunication and supplies the received information to the IC cardcontrol section 321.

Further, the portable telephone set 101 has, as the Bluetoothcommunication section 217, a Bluetooth control section 331 and anantenna section 332. The Bluetooth control section 331 carries outcontrol processes relating to Bluetooth communication. The antennasection 332 is an antenna for transmitting and receiving a signal in theBluetooth communication.

The portable telephone set 101 further has a transmission side player341 and a reception side player 342. The transmission side player 341streaming reproduces music data and outputs streaming data. Thereception side player 342 reproduces streaming data and outputs a soundsignal.

The device control section 301 executes various processes in accordancewith a user instruction inputted from the inputting section 211. Theplaylist exchange A control section 311 of the device control section301 controls the IC card control section 321 to execute the very shortdistance radio communication so that processes of the portable telephoneset A relating to playlist exchange are executed. Meanwhile, theplaylist exchange A control section 311 reads out data stored in thedevice memory 302 and supplies the data to the IC card control section321 such that the data is transmitted by the very short distance radiocommunication. Further, the playlist exchange A control section 311acquires data received by the very short distance radio communication bythe IC card control section 321 and stores the data into the devicememory 302.

The playlist exchange B control section 312 controls the IC card controlsection 321 to execute the very short distance radio communication toexecute processes as those of the portable telephone set B relating toplaylist exchange. Further, the playlist exchange B control section 312reads out data stored in the device memory 302 and supplies the data tothe IC card control section 321 such that the data is transmitted by thevery short distance radio communication. Further, the playlist exchangeB control section 312 acquires data received by the very short distanceradio communication by the IC card control section 321 and stores thedata into the device memory 302.

The display control section 313 controls image display by a monitorincluded in the outputting section 212. For example, the display controlsection 313 reads out a playlist stored in the device memory 302 andsupplies the playlist to the outputting section 212 such that an imageof the playlist is displayed as a GUI on the monitor. Further, thedisplay control section 313 controls the inputting section 211 to accepta user instruction inputted in response to the display on the monitor.

The transmission side reproduction processing control section 314 readsout, in accordance with a request for reproduction received through theBluetooth control section 331, requested music data or musicalcomposition from the device memory 302 and controls the transmissionside player 341 to produce streaming data. The transmission sidereproduction processing control section 314 supplies the streaming datato the Bluetooth control section 331 so as to be transmitted to thesource of the request.

If the user selects a musical composition belonging to a differentdevice from within a playlist of the different device, then thereception side reproduction processing control section 315 controls theBluetooth control section 331 to transmit a reproduction request. Whenthe Bluetooth communication section 217 receives streaming datatransmitted in response to the reproduction request, the reception sidereproduction processing control section 315 acquires the streaming datafrom the Bluetooth control section 331 and controls the reception sideplayer 342 to reproduce the streaming data so that sound is outputtedfrom the speaker of the outputting section 212.

Now, data to be stored in the portable telephone set 101 are described.FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a configuration of data to be stored inthe portable telephone set 101.

The portable telephone set 101 stores various data into two storageregions of the IC card memory 322 and the device memory 302. The devicecontrol section 301 accesses a common region of the IC card memory 322through IC card software 351 to carry out reading out or writing of datafrom or into the common region of the IC card memory 322. Further, thedevice control section 301 accesses the device memory 302 through adevice application program interface (API) 352 to carry out reading outor writing of data from or into the device memory 302. The IC cardsoftware 351 and the device API 352 individually function as interfacesof the IC card memory 322 and the device memory 302, respectively. Byutilizing such IC card software 351 or device API 352 to access the ICcard memory 322 or device memory 302, development of the device controlsection 301 is facilitated.

The IC card memory 322 can store only a small amount of data therein. Inthe common region of the IC card memory 322, for example, IC cardproduction information 361, device setting information 362 and loginformation 363 are stored. The IC card production information 361 isidentification information for identification of the IC card controlsection 321 allocated upon production to the IC card control section321. Where the portable telephone set 101 has one IC card function (ICcard section 218), the IC card production information 361 can beutilized also as information for identification of the portabletelephone set 101.

The device setting information 362 is information regarding the portabletelephone set 101 as a device in which the IC card section 218 isprovided. The device setting information 362 includes apparatusinformation 371 which relates to the portable telephone set 101 such asa function, a performance and so forth which the portable telephone set101 has, and user information 372 which is basic information regardingthe user of the portable telephone set 101.

The log information 363 is history information of the communicationprocess or the reproduction process. The log information 363 includes,for example, a high touch log 373 which is history information of thevery short distance radio communication by the IC card section 218 andan immediately preceding reproduction log 374 which information relatingto a preceding reproduction process.

The device memory 302 can store an amount of data greater than that ofthe IC card memory 322. The device memory 302 stores, for example, useraddition information 381, playlist information 382 and a user list 383.

The user addition information 381 is further detailed informationregarding the user of the portable telephone set 101. The user additioninformation 381 includes user information A 391 and user information B392 classified in level so that the range of disclosure of informationcan be set stepwise.

The playlist information 382 is information relating to music data asdescribed hereinabove. The playlist information 382 includes a device ID393 which is information for specifying a device in which music datacorresponding to the playlist are stored, and a product number list 394which is a list of product numbers which are identification informationof music data. The product numbers included in the product number list394 are information by which at least music data can be identified inthe device in which the music data are stored.

The user list 383 is a list of user information of users with whomplaylists are exchanged. Accordingly, the user list 383 includesinformation for each user of a user ID 395, an icon number (icon No.)396, a handle name 397, a greeting sentence 398 and so forth.

Further, the device memory 302 stores, for each product number, that is,for each musical composition, included in the product number list 394 ofthe playlist information 382, also music information 401 which isinformation regarding the musical composition. The music information 401includes a product number 411 for the identification of the musicalcomposition, a title 412 of the musical composition, and a package ID413 to which the musical composition belongs. The product number 411 issame as the product number included in the product number list 394. Inparticular, the product numbers of the product number list 394 and themusic information 401 are associated with each other by the productnumber 411. It is to be noted that the product numbers 411 and theproduct numbers included in the product number list 394 need notnecessarily be same as each other only if a corresponding relationshipbetween the product number list 394 and the music information 401 isindicated. The title 412 is information representative of the name ofthe musical composition, that is, the title of the musical composition.The package ID 413 is information for the identification of a packagewhich is a unit of a work formed from one or a plurality of musicalcompositions. For example, a plurality of musical compositions are soldor transferred collectively. As a unit in management in this instance, apackage which includes a plurality of musical compositions is used.

Further, the device memory 302 stores also package information 421 whichis information relating to the package represented by the package ID 413of the music information 401. The package information 421 includes, forexample, a package product number 431, a package name 432, a packagekana name 433, and a jacket URL 434. The package product number 431 issame as the package ID 413 and associates the package information 421and the music information 401 with each other. It is to be noted thatthe package product number 431 need not necessarily be same as thepackage ID 413 only if it indicates a corresponding relationship withthe package ID 413 to which the package information 421 corresponds.

The package name 432 and the package kana name 433 are informationregarding the name allocated to the package for facilitatingidentification of the package by the user. The jacket URL 434 isinformation indicative of a data providing source of an image or jacketallocated to the jacket. It is to be noted that the jacket URL 434 maybe any information only if it provides a providing source of the data ofthe jacket and may be information other than a URL.

The data are described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 6 to 10.FIG. 6 illustrates an example of data included in the device settinginformation 362.

Referring to FIG. 6, the apparatus information 371 is formed frominformation of 192 bytes in the maximum. The apparatus information 371may be any information if it relates to a terminal apparatus, that is,relates to the portable telephone set 101, such as identificationinformation or information relating to a function. The user information372 is information regarding the user of the portable telephone set 101and includes, for example, an information disclosure level, a disclosureicon, a handle name, a greeting sentence and so forth. The informationdisclosure level is setting information representative of to whichdegree information relating to the user or the portable telephone set101 may be disclosed to a different user or device. For example, theinformation disclosure level designates whether or not a playlist shouldbe exchanged or designates which information should be disclosed such asthe apparatus information 371 or the user information 372. Theinformation disclosure level is set, for example, in accordance with auser information inputted through a GUI or the like.

The disclosure icon is information for setting an image or an iconrepresentative of the user. This icon may be determined selectively fromamong images prepared in advance, or an image prepared by the user orthe like may be used as the icon. An image designated by the disclosureicon is disclosed as an icon representative of the user, that is, isprovided to a different device upon playlist exchange. The handle nameis a name representative of the user and can be set arbitrarily by theuser. The greeting sentence is a message, for example, for the selfintroduction and can be set arbitrarily by the user itself.

Naturally, the device setting information 362 may include informationdifferent from the information described hereinabove.

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of data included in the user additioninformation 381. Referring to FIG. 7, the user information A 391 of theuser addition information 381 is information to be disclosed to agreater number of other users than those users to which user informationB 392 may be disclosed from within the user addition information 381 orinformation which is to be disclosed to an arbitrary other user. Theuser information A 391 includes the sex, blood type, birthday,constellation and so forth of the user. The user information B 392 isinformation which may be disclosed only to a particular user or usersfrom within the user addition information 381 or information whichshould not be disclosed to any other user. The user information B 392includes information from which the individual user can be specified,that is, information of comparatively high personality, such as thename, kana name, telephone number, mail address, telephone number, URL,RSS (Rich Site Summary) and so forth of the user.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of data included in the playlistinformation 382. Referring to FIG. 8, the device ID 393 is formed, forexample, from 16 alphanumeric letters obtained by ASCII conversion of 8bytes of an apparatus ID allocated to the device. The product numberlist 394 is formed from the product numbers of different musicalcompositions.

FIG. 9 illustrates an example of data included in the music information401. Referring to FIG. 9, the music information 401 includes the productnumber 411, title 412, and package ID 413 described hereinabove. Themusic information 401 may further include information of, for example, akana title representing the title of the musical composition inkatakana, an artist name representative of the name of a player of themusical composition, an artist kana name representing the artist name inkatakana, a genre name representative of a type or genre of the musicalcomposition, musical composition time representative of reproductiontime of the musical composition, a sound source purchase destination URLrepresentative of a URL of the purchase destination of the music data,an expanded URL indicative of a URL such as an RSS by which detaileddescription of the musical component is presented, a reproduction timenumber representative of the number of times by which the musicalcomposition has been reproduced and so forth. Naturally, the musicinformation 401 may further include any other information.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of data included in the packageinformation 421. Referring to FIG. 10, the package information 421 mayinclude information of the sales starting day of the package in additionto the package ID 431, package name 432, package kana name 433 andjacket URL 434. Naturally, the package information 421 may furtherinclude any other information.

Now, a flow of processes relating to sharing of playlists and sales ofmusic data by the portable telephone set 101 having such a configurationas described above is described. First, an outline of exchange ofplaylists is described with reference to a flow chart of FIG. 11. FIG.11 illustrates an outline of exchange of playlists carried out by theportable telephone set A and the portable telephone set B as in theexample described hereinabove with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3C.

If the user carries out an operation for instruction to carry outexchange of playlists, then the portable telephone set A places, at stepS101, the operation mode of the IC card section 218 into a polling modeso that a polling signal is outputted by the very short distance radiocommunication carried out by the IC card section 218 to pick up adifferent IC card which exists within a communication range.Simultaneously, the portable telephone set A causes the monitor thereofto display a message for urging the user to move the portable telephoneset A itself toward the portable telephone set B, which will become theopposite party of exchange of playlist, such as “Please touch with theopposite party portable telephone set” as seen in FIG. 12.

If the portable telephone set A approaches the portable telephone set Bsufficiently and the portable telephone set B receives the pollingsignal at step S121, then the portable telephone set B transmits, atstep S122, IC card production information 451 for the identification ofthe IC card section 218 of the portable telephone set B, or the portabletelephone set B itself which has the IC card function, to the portabletelephone set A by the very short distance radio communication carriedout by the IC card section 218 in response to the polling signal.

The IC card production information 451 is stored in the IC card memory322. In short, the IC card production information 451 is equivalent tothe IC card production information 361 illustrated in FIG. 5.

The portable telephone set A receives the response from the portabletelephone set B, that is, the IC card production information 451 of theportable telephone set B at step S102. After the IC card productioninformation 451 is received, the portable telephone set A transmits, atstep S103, a basic setting information reading out request to theportable telephone set B of the source of the IC card productioninformation 451 by the very short distance radio communication carriedout by the IC card section 218. The portable telephone set B receivesthe request at step S123 and transmits basic setting information 452 ofthe portable telephone set B to the portable telephone set A by the veryshort distance radio communication carried out by the IC card section218 in response to the request at step S124.

The basic setting information 452 is basic setting information stored inthe IC card memory 322 and necessary for communication by a connectionsystem called ad hoc connection of the very short distance radiocommunication (such communication is hereinafter referred to as ad hoccommunication) and exchange of playlists. In short, the basic settinginformation 452 is equivalent to the device setting information 362illustrated in FIG. 5 and includes the apparatus information 371, userinformation 372 and so forth as seen in FIG. 6.

The portable telephone set A receives the response from the portabletelephone set B, that is, the basic setting information 452 of theportable telephone set B at step S104. After the basic settinginformation 452 is received, the portable telephone set A issues arequest to start ad hoc communication to the portable telephone set B atstep S105. When the portable telephone set B receives the request andacknowledges the connection at step S125, ad hoc communication isestablished and transfer of data is started. The portable telephone setA and the portable telephone set B carry out transmission and receptionof data to and from the other parties at steps S106 and S126,respectively.

For example, the portable telephone set A transmits portable telephoneset A information 453 including the IC card production information 451and the basic setting information 452 of the portable telephone set A tothe portable telephone set B. Further, the portable telephone set A andthe portable telephone set B exchange, for example, extension settinginformation 454 and playlist information 455 thereof with each other.The extension setting information 454 is setting information stored inthe device memory 302 and extended as occasion demands. In short, theextension setting information 454 is equivalent to the user additioninformation 381 illustrated in FIG. 5. Meanwhile, the playlistinformation 455 is information stored in the device memory 302 fordesignating a musical composition. In short, the playlist information455 is equivalent to the playlist information 382 illustrated in FIG. 5.

While the ad hoc communication is being carried out, such a message“Playlists being exchanged” representing that the communication isproceeding as seen in FIG. 13 is displayed on the monitor of theportable telephone set A. Then, when the exchange of playlists iscompleted, such a message “Exchange of playlists completed” representingthat the exchange of playlists is completed as seen in FIG. 14 isdisplayed on the monitor of the portable telephone set A.

After the exchange of playlists is completed as described above, theportable telephone set A issues a notification of the completion of adhoc information to the portable telephone set B at step S107. Theportable telephone set B receives the notification at step S127. The adhoc communication is ended therewith.

It is to be noted that, when the portable telephone set B receives therequest to start ad hoc communication at step S125, an application forimplementing the functions of the device control section 301 forexchanging playlists and reproducing music data based on a playlist isstarted. While the application is operating, such a message “Applicationbeing started” as seen in FIG. 15 is displayed on the monitor of theportable telephone set B. Further, when the application is started, thead hoc communication is started to start transmission and reception ofdata (step S126). At this time, such a message as seen in FIG. 13 isdisplayed on the monitor of the portable telephone set B similarly as inthe case of the portable telephone set A. Further, when the exchange ofplaylists is completed, such a message as seen in FIG. 14 is displayedon the monitor of the portable telephone set B similarly as in the caseof the portable telephone set A.

After the ad hoc communication is completed, the portable telephone setA produces log information 456 of the ad hoc communication and storesthe log information 456 into the IC card memory 322 at step S108. Inshort, the log information 456 is equivalent to the high touch log 373illustrated in FIG. 5. Similarly, the portable telephone set B produceslog information 457 of the ad hoc communication and stores the loginformation 457 into the IC card memory 322 at step S128. In short, thelog information 457 is equivalent to the high touch log 373 illustratedin FIG. 5.

FIG. 16 illustrates an example of a manner of transition of informationstored in the portable telephone set A during such exchange of playlistsas described above.

In an initial state before the process at step S101 of FIG. 11 isstarted, the storage region of the portable telephone set A whichincludes both of the IC card memory 322 and the device memory 302 hasstorage region 461, which is illustrated at a leftmost portion of FIG.16, stored therein. The storage region 461 includes IC card productioninformation 451A which is the IC card production information 451 of theportable telephone set A, basic setting information 452A which is thebasic setting information 452 of the portable telephone set A, extensionsetting information 454A which is extension setting information of theportable telephone set A, and playlist information 455A which is theplaylist information 455 of music data or musical compositions stored inthe portable telephone set A.

When the portable telephone set A receives the IC card productioninformation 451 from the portable telephone set B at step S102, IC cardproduction information 451B which is the IC card production information451 of the portable telephone set B is additionally stored into thestorage region of the portable telephone set A as seen from a storageregion 462 illustrated at a second leftmost portion in FIG. 16.

When the portable telephone set A receives the basic setting information452 from the portable telephone set B at step S104, basic settinginformation 452B which is the basic setting information 452 of theportable telephone set B is additionally stored into the storage regionof the portable telephone set A as seen from a storage region 463illustrated at a third leftmost portion in FIG. 16.

When the extension setting information 454 and the playlist information455 are exchanged and then the log information 456 is produced at stepS108, extension setting information 454B which is the extension settinginformation 454 of the portable telephone set B, playlist information455B which is the playlist information 455 of the music data stored inthe portable telephone set B and the log information 456 produced atstep S108 are additionally stored into the storage region of theportable telephone set A as seen from a storage region 464 illustratedat the rightmost portion of FIG. 16.

FIG. 17 is a view corresponding to FIG. 16 and illustrates an example ofa manner of transition of information stored in the portable telephoneset B in the exchange of playlists.

In an initial stage before the process at step S101 of FIG. 11 isstarted, the IC card production information 451B, basic settinginformation 452B, extension setting information 454B and playlistinformation 455B are stored in the storage region of the portabletelephone set B including both of the IC card memory 322 and the devicememory 302 as in the case of a storage region 471 illustrated at a leftportion of FIG. 17.

When the processes at steps S121 to S128 are executed and information ofthe playlists and so forth is transferred and then the log information457 is produced, the IC card production information 451A, basic settinginformation 452A, extension setting information 454A, playlistinformation 455A and log information 457 are additionally stored in thestorage region of the portable telephone set B as in the case of astorage region 472 illustrated at a right portion of FIG. 17.

Now, a more detailed flow of the playlist exchanging process describedhereinabove with reference to FIG. 11 is described with reference toFIGS. 18 to 21.

FIGS. 18 and 19 illustrate an example of a flow of processes of thecomponents of the portable telephone set A including the device controlsection 301, device memory 302 and IC card section 218.

Referring first to FIG. 18, if an instruction to exchange of playlistsis issued by the user, then the playlist exchange A control section 311of the device control section 301 controls the IC card control section321 to set the IC card section 218 to a contactless polling mode at stepS211. The IC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218acquires the instruction from the device control section 301 at stepS231 and controls the antenna section 323 to output a polling signal tostart polling at step S232.

After the portable telephone set A approaches the portable telephone setB sufficiently, the portable telephone set B transmits productioninformation as a response to the polling signal. The IC card controlsection 321 of the IC card section 218 controls the antenna section 323to receive the production information at step S233 and supplies anapparatus ID for the identification of the portable telephone set Bincluded in the received production information to the device memory 302so as to be stored at step S234.

The device memory 302 acquires the apparatus ID at step S201 andregisters the acquired apparatus ID as the user ID of the user of theportable telephone set B at step S202.

The playlist exchange A control section 311 of the device controlsection 301 controls the IC card control section 321 to issue a requestfor the basic setting information 452B of the portable telephone set Bat step S212. The IC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218acquires the request at step S235 and transmits a basic settinginformation request for requesting for the basic setting information452B through the antenna section 323 at step S236. The portabletelephone set B transmits the basic setting information 452B in responseto the request. The IC card control section 321 of the IC card section218 receives the basic setting information 452B transmitted from theportable telephone set B through the antenna section 323 at step S237and supplies the received basic setting information 452B to the playlistexchange A control section 311 of the device control section 301 at stepS238.

The playlist exchange A control section 311 of the device controlsection 301 acquires the basic setting information 452B at step S213 andanalyzes the acquired basic setting information 452B to extractnecessary information from the basic setting information 452B andproduce addition information to be added to the user ID at step S214.The playlist exchange A control section 311 supplies the producedaddition information to the device memory 302 so as to be stored at stepS215. The device memory 302 acquires the addition information at stepS203, and stores, at step S204, the addition information in anassociated relationship with the user ID registered at step S202 toregister the addition information for the individual user.

After the addition information is stored, the playlist exchange Acontrol section 311 of the device control section 301 controls the ICcard control section 321 to issue a request to start ad hoccommunication with the portable telephone set B at step S216. The ICcard control section 321 of the IC card section 218 acquires the requestat step S239 and carries out a communication connection process ofissuing a request for connection for ad hoc communication to theportable telephone set B and receiving a response from the portabletelephone set B through the antenna section 323 to start ad hoccommunication with the portable telephone set B at step S240. After thecommunication is started, the IC card control section 321 of the IC cardsection 218 issues a notification of the starting of communication tothe playlist exchange A control section 311 at step S241.

The playlist exchange A control section 311 of the device controlsection 301 acquires the notification at step S217 and controls the ICcard control section 321 to transmit the IC card production information451A and the basic setting information 452A of the portable telephoneset A at step S218. The IC card control section 321 of the IC cardsection 218 acquires the request at step S242 and reads out the IC cardproduction information 451A and the basic setting information 452A fromthe IC card memory 322 and transmits them to the portable telephone setB through the antenna section 323 at step S243.

Further, the playlist exchange A control section 311 of the devicecontrol section 301 controls the IC card control section 321 to issue arequest for the extension setting information 454B of the portabletelephone set B at step S219. The IC card control section 321 of the ICcard section 218 acquires the request at step S244 and transmits anextension setting information request for requesting for the extensionsetting information 454B to the portable telephone set B through theantenna section 323 at step S245. The portable telephone set B transmitsthe extension setting information 454B in response to the request. TheIC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218 receives theextension setting information 454B at step S246 and supplies thereceived extension setting information 454B to the playlist exchange Acontrol section 311 at step S247.

The playlist exchange A control section 311 of the device controlsection 301 acquires the extension setting information 454B at step S220and analyzes the acquired extension setting information 454B to extractnecessary information and produce addition information to be added tothe user ID at step S221. The playlist exchange A control section 311supplies the produced addition information to the device memory 302 soas to be stored at step S222. The device memory 302 acquires theaddition information at step S205 and stores the addition information inan associated relationship with the user ID registered at step S202 toregister the addition information for the individual user at step S206.

Further, the playlist exchange A control section 311 of the devicecontrol section 301 issues a request for the extension settinginformation 454A of the portable telephone set A stored in the devicememory 302 at step S271 of FIG. 19. Referring now to FIG. 19, the devicememory 302 acquires the request at step S261 and reads out the extensionsetting information 454A from the storage region and then supplies theextension setting information 454A to the playlist exchange A controlsection 311 at step S262. The playlist exchange A control section 311 ofthe device control section 301 acquires the extension settinginformation 454A at step S272 and supplies the acquired extensionsetting information 454A to the IC card control section 321 so as to betransmitted to the portable telephone set B at step S273. The IC cardcontrol section 321 of the IC card section 218 acquires the extensionsetting information 454A at step S291 and transmits the acquiredextension setting information 454A to the portable telephone set Bthrough the antenna section 323 at step S292.

Further, the playlist exchange A control section 311 of the devicecontrol section 301 issues a request for the playlist information 455Acorresponding to music data stored in the device memory 302 to thedevice memory 302 at step S274. The device memory 302 acquires therequest at step S363 and reads out the playlist information 455A fromthe storage region and supplies the playlist information 455A to theplaylist exchange A control section 311 at step S264. The playlistexchange A control section 311 of the device control section 301acquires the playlist information 455A at step S275 and supplies theacquired playlist information 455A to the IC card control section 321 soas to be transmitted to the portable telephone set B at step S276. TheIC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218 acquires theplaylist information 455A at step S293 and transmits the acquiredplaylist information 455A to the portable telephone set B through theantenna section 323 at step S294.

Further, the playlist exchange A control section 311 of the devicecontrol section 301 controls the IC card control section 321 to issue arequest for the playlist information 455B of the portable telephone setB at step S277. The IC card control section 321 of the IC card section218 acquires the request at step S295 and transmits a playlist requestfor requesting for the playlist information 455B to the portabletelephone set B through the antenna section 323 at step S296. Theportable telephone set B transmits the playlist information 455B to theportable telephone set A in response to the request. The IC card controlsection 321 of the IC card section 218 receives the playlist information455B at step S297 and supplies the received playlist information 455B tothe playlist exchange A control section 311 at step S298.

The playlist exchange A control section 311 of the device controlsection 301 acquires the playlist information 455B at step S278 andsupplies the acquired playlist information 455B to the device memory 302so as to be stored at step S279. The device memory 302 acquires theplaylist information 455B at step S265 and stores the playlistinformation 455B in an associated relationship with the user IDregistered at step S202 to register the playlist information 455 for theindividual user at step S266.

After the exchange of playlists is completed in such a manner asdescribed above, the playlist exchange A control section 311 of thedevice control section 301 controls the IC card control section 321 toend the ad hoc communication at step S280. The IC card control section321 of the IC card section 218 acquires the request at step S299 andcarries out a communicating ending process of issuing a request to endthe ad hoc information to the portable telephone set B through theantenna section 323 and receiving a response from the portable telephoneset B at step S300. After the communication is ended, the IC cardcontrol section 321 of the IC card section 218 produces log information456 of ad hoc communication at step S301 and stores the log information456 into the IC card memory 322 at step S302.

FIGS. 20 and 21 illustrate an example of processes of the components ofthe device control section 301, device memory 302 and IC card section218. The flowcharts of FIGS. 20 and 21 correspond to those of FIGS. 18and 19.

Referring first to FIG. 20, when the portable telephone set A in thepolling mode approaches the IC card section 218 by the process at stepS232 of FIG. 18, the IC card control section 321 of the IC card section218 receives a detection signal or polling signal transmitted from theapproaching portable telephone set A through the antenna section 323 atstep S311. The IC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218reads out the IC card production information 451B stored in the IC cardmemory 322 and transmits the IC card production information 451B as aresponse to the received detection signal to the portable telephone setA through the antenna section 323 at step S312. The IC card productioninformation 451B is received by the portable telephone set A by theprocess at step S233 of FIG. 18.

When a basic setting information request is transmitted from theportable telephone set A by the process at step S236 of FIG. 18, the ICcard control section 321 of the IC card section 218 receives the basicsetting information request at step S313 of FIG. 20. The IC card controlsection 321 of the IC card section 218 reads out the basic settinginformation 452B stored in the IC card memory 322 and transmits thebasic setting information 452B as a response to the received request tothe portable telephone set A through the antenna section 323 at stepS314. The basic setting information 452B is received by the portabletelephone set A by the process at step S237 of FIG. 18.

If a request to start ad hoc communication is issued from the portabletelephone set A by the process at step S240 of FIG. 18, then the IC cardcontrol section 321 of the IC card section 218 starts ad hoccommunication in response to the request at step S315 of FIG. 20. Then,the IC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218 starts up anapplication for implementing the playlist exchange B control section 312of the device control section 301 at step S316. The device controlsection 301 receives the starting request at step S331 and starts up therequested application to implement the playlist exchange B controlsection 312 at step S332.

When the IC card production information 451A and the basic settinginformation 452A are transmitted from the portable telephone set A bythe process at step S243 of FIG. 18, the IC card control section 321 ofthe IC card section 218 receives them through the antenna section 323 atstep S317 of FIG. 20. The IC card control section 321 of the IC cardsection 218 supplies the received IC card production information 451Aand basic setting information 452A to the playlist exchange B controlsection 312 at step S318. The playlist exchange B control section 312 ofthe device control section 301 acquires the IC card productioninformation 451A and the basic setting information 452A at step S333 andanalyzes the basic setting information 452A to extract necessaryinformation and produce addition information to be added to theapparatus ID extracted from the IC card production information 451A atstep S334. Then, the playlist exchange B control section 312 of thedevice control section 301 supplies the apparatus ID extracted from theIC card production information 451A and the produced additioninformation to the device memory 302 so as to be stored at step S335.The device memory 302 acquires the apparatus ID and the additioninformation at step S341 and registers the apparatus ID as a user ID ofthe user of the portable telephone set A at step S342. Further at stepS343, the device memory 302 stores the addition information in anassociated relationship with the user ID registered at step S342 toregister the addition information for the individual user.

If an extension setting information request is transmitted from theportable telephone set A by the process at step S245 of FIG. 18, thenthe IC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218 receives theextension setting information request through the antenna section 323 atstep S319 of FIG. 20 and supplies the received extension settinginformation request to the playlist exchange B control section 312 atstep S320.

The playlist exchange B control section 312 of the device controlsection 301 receives the request at step S336 and issues a request forthe extension setting information 454B stored in the device memory 302at step S337. The device memory 302 acquires the request at step S344and reads out the extension setting information 454B from the storageregion and supplies the extension setting information 454B to theplaylist exchange B control section 312 at step S345. The playlistexchange B control section 312 of the device control section 301acquires the extension setting information 454B at step S338 andsupplies the extension setting information 454B to the IC card controlsection 321 so as to be transmitted to the portable telephone set A atstep S339. The IC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218acquires the extension setting information 454B at step S321 andtransmits the extension setting information 454B to the portabletelephone set A through the antenna section 323 at step S322. Theextension setting information 454B is received by the portable telephoneset A by the process at step S246 of FIG. 18.

When the extension setting information 454A is transmitted from theportable telephone set A by the process at step S292 of FIG. 19, the ICcard control section 321 of the IC card section 218 receives theextension setting information 454A through the antenna section 323 atstep S351 of FIG. 21 and supplies the received extension settinginformation 454A to the playlist exchange B control section 312 at stepS352.

Referring to FIG. 21, the playlist exchange B control section 312 of thedevice control section 301 receives the extension setting information454A at step S371 and analyzes the extension setting information 454A toextract necessary information and produce addition information to beadded to the user ID at step S372. The playlist exchange B controlsection 312 supplies the produced addition information to the devicememory 302 so as to be stored at step S373. The device memory 302acquires the addition information at step S381 and stores the additioninformation in an associated relationship with the user ID registered atstep S342 to register the addition information for the individual userat step S342.

When the playlist information 455A is transmitted from the portabletelephone set A by the process at step S294 of FIG. 19, the IC cardcontrol section 321 of the IC card section 218 receives the playlistinformation 455A through the antenna section 323 at step S353 of FIG.21. The IC card control section 321 of the IC card section 218 suppliesthe received playlist information 455A to the playlist exchange Bcontrol section 312 at step S354.

The playlist exchange B control section 312 of the device controlsection 301 acquires the playlist information 455A at step S374 andsupplies the acquired playlist information 455A to the device memory 302so as to be stored at step S375. The device memory 302 acquires theplaylist information 455A at step S383 and stores the playlistinformation 455A in an associated relationship with the user IDregistered at step S342 to register the playlist information 455A forthe individual user at step S384.

When a playlist request is transmitted from the portable telephone set Aby the process at step S296 of FIG. 19, the IC card control section 321of the IC card section 218 receives the playlist request through theantenna section 323 at step S355 of FIG. 21. The IC card control section321 of the IC card section 218 supplies the received playlist request tothe playlist exchange B control section 312 at step S356.

The playlist exchange B control section 312 of the device controlsection 301 acquires the playlist request at step S376 and issues arequest for playlist information to the device memory 302 at step S377.The device memory 302 acquires the request at step S385 and reads outthe playlist information 455B from the storage region and supplies theplaylist information 455B to the playlist exchange B control section 312at step S386. The playlist exchange B control section 312 acquires theplaylist information 455B at step S378 and supplies the acquiredplaylist information 455B to the IC card control section 321 so as to betransmitted to the portable telephone set A at step S379. The IC cardcontrol section 321 of the IC card section 218 acquires the playlistinformation 455B at step S357 and transmits the playlist information455B to the portable telephone set A through the antenna section 323 atstep S358. The playlist information 455B is received by the portabletelephone set A by the process at step S297 of FIG. 19.

After the exchange of playlists is completed in such a manner asdescribed above, the IC card control section 321 of the IC card section218 carries out a communicating ending process corresponding to theprocess at step S300 of FIG. 19 to end the ad hoc communication. Afterthe communication is ended, the IC card control section 321 of the ICcard section 218 produces log information 457 of the ad hoccommunication at step S360 and stores the log information 457 into theIC card memory 322 at step S361.

As described above, the portable telephone set 101 can exchangeplaylists readily with the portable telephone set 102 which is adifferent portable telephone set having similar functions to those ofthe portable telephone set 101.

FIG. 22 illustrates an example of information registered in the devicememory 302.

Information acquired from the opposite party of exchange of playlists isdescribed in such an XML format as illustrated in FIG. 22 inregistration information 481. The registration information 481 is usedfor management of information regarding a playlist and a user for eachuser. Referring to FIG. 22, the registration information 481 includes auser ID described as a tag. Further, a user attribute formed frominformation regarding the user of the user ID, addition information ofarbitrary substance, a playlist acquired from the user and informationrelating to the apparatus used by the user such as product informationare described in the registration information 481 in such a manner as tobelong to the tag of the user ID.

As described hereinabove, since the playlist information includesinformation of a device in which music data corresponding to a musicalcomposition is stored, the device control section 301 can carry out itreadily to specify, for example, when a musical composition isdesignated, the place of the music data. However, if only thisinformation is utilized, there is the possibility that, for example,when display control of a playlist or the like is to be carried out ashereinafter described, where it is tried to specify to which user orapparatus each playlist belongs, the processing may be complicatedbecause it is necessary to confirm data of all musical compositions.

Where the device memory 302 manages playlist information for each useras seen from FIG. 22, the device control section 301 can easily grasp towhich user a certain playlist belongs.

As described above, portable telephone sets having exchange playliststhereof can share music data by streaming reproduction. Now, an outlineof such sharing of music data is described with reference to FIG. 23.FIG. 23 illustrates an outline of sharing of music data carried outbetween the portable telephone set A and the portable telephone set B asin the example of FIGS. 3A to 3C. It is to be noted that here a musiccomposition whose music data is stored in the portable telephone set Bis streaming reproduced and sound is outputted from the portabletelephone set A is described.

The portable telephone set A, for example, instructed by the user so asto display a playlist carries out a display control process of theplaylist to display the playlist on the monitor at step S401. Details ofthe playlist display control process are hereinafter described. Afterthe playlist is displayed as a GUI on the monitor, the user wouldoperate the GUI of the playlist to carry out selection of a musiccomposition to be reproduced. The portable telephone set A accepts theselection of the music composition by the user at step S402. Naturally,such selection of a music composition to be reproduced may be carriedout by some other than the user, for example, by some software programor an external apparatus.

After a musical composition is selected, the portable telephone set Aestablishes a session with the portable telephone set B, which has musicdata of the selected musical composition stored therein, for Bluetoothcommunication at step S403. The portable telephone set B carries out, atstep S411, a process relating to session establishment corresponding tothe process of the portable telephone set A.

After a session is established, the portable telephone set A transmits areproduction request for the selected musical composition to theportable telephone set B by the Bluetooth communication at step S404.The portable telephone set B receives the reproduction request at stepS412 and activates the transmission side player 341 at step S413. On theother hand, the portable telephone set A having emitted the reproductionrequest activates the reception side player 342 at step S405.

After the transmission side player 341 is activated, the portabletelephone set B starts a reproduction transmission process for streamingreproducing the requested musical composition at step S414. It is to benoted that, at this time, the portable telephone set B may start thereproduction transmission process after it confirms that the receptionside player 342 is started in the portable telephone set A. For example,the portable telephone set A may transmit, after the reception sideplayer 342 is activated, a predetermined activation confirmation signalthat the reception side player 342 is started to the portable telephoneset B such that the portable telephone set B starts the reproductiontransmission process at step S414 after it receives the activationstarting signal.

After the reproduction transmission process is started, the portabletelephone set B transmits streaming data of the musical composition,whose reproduction has been requested, to the portable telephone set Aby Bluetooth communication at step S415. The portable telephone set Areceives the streaming data at step S406 and then starts a receptionoutputting process of reproducing the streaming data to output sound atstep S407.

The portable telephone set A and the portable telephone set B sharemusic data in such a manner as described above. Then, when the streamingreproduction of the musical composition whose reproduction has beenrequested comes to an end, the portable telephone set A and the portabletelephone set B end the reproduction process.

It is to be noted that, also where a musical composition whose musicdata is stored in the portable telephone set A is to be outputted assound from the portable telephone set B, the processes to be executed bythe two apparatus are same as those in the case described above exceptthat the processes by the portable telephone set A and the processes bythe portable telephone set B are replaced by each other. By exchangingplaylists in such a manner as described above, the portable telephoneset A and the portable telephone set B can share music data readily.

Now, an example of a detailed flow of the playlist display controlprocess executed at step S401 of FIG. 23 is described with reference toFIG. 24.

If an instruction to display the playlist is issued, then the displaycontrol section 313 of the device control section 301 reads out allplaylist information stored in the device memory 302 at step S431. Inthe example of FIG. 16, the display control section 313 reads out theplaylist information 455A and the playlist information 455B.

The display control section 313 having read out the playlists produces aGUI image of the playlists and supplies the GUI image to the outputtingsection 212 so as to be displayed on the monitor at step S432. Then atstep S433, the display control section 313 controls the inputtingsection 211 to start musical composition selection acceptance ofaccepting selection of a musical composition inputted by the user basedon the GUI screen displayed on the monitor.

FIG. 25 shows an example of display of a playlist. Referring to FIG. 25,a playlist display region 510 is provided at part or in the entirety ofa display region 501 of the monitor, and playlists are displayed in theplaylist display region 510. Information is displayed as a list for eachmusical composition so that the playlists allow selection in a unit of amusical composition. In the example of FIG. 25, information for sixmusical compositions is displayed like musical compositions 511 to 516.Information of the musical compositions is configured basicallysimilarly.

In the example of FIG. 25, for each of the musical compositions 511 to516, an image added to a package to which the musical compositionbelongs, that is, a jacket image, is displayed on the left side, and amusical composition name and a player name are displayed at a centralportion while the name of a device which stores musical data of themusical composition is displayed on the right side. A quadrangular shapeindicated on the left side in each of the regions of the musicalcompositions 511 to 516 indicates the display region of the jacketimage, and a character string of upper case characters such as “AIUEO”or “KAKIKUKEKO” indicated at a central portion indicates an example ofthe musical composition name, that is, the title of the musicalcomposition. Meanwhile, a character string of lower case characters suchas “aiueo” or “kakikukeko” below the character string of hiraganacharacters indicates an example of a player name, that is, an artistname. Further, an alphabetical letter such as A, B, C surrounded by asquare on the right side indicates an example of the device name of adevice which stores the music data. For example, it is illustrated that,for the musical composition 511, the musical composition title is“AIUEO” and the artist name is “aiueo,” and the music data is stored inthe portable telephone set A.

It is to be noted that all musical compositions of the playlists may bedisplayed in the display region 501 or some of such musical compositionsmay be displayed. Naturally, a page changeover button, a scroll bar orthe like may be provided.

Referring back to FIG. 24, the display control section 313 controls theBluetooth control section 331 at step S434 to issue an inquiry about aBluetooth device which is a device having a Bluetooth communicationfunction. The Bluetooth control section 331 outputs a detection signalfor detecting a different Bluetooth device existing in the communicationrange through the antenna section 332. Any different Bluetooth devicewhich receives the detection signal outputs information regarding thedifferent Bluetooth device itself as a response to the detection signal.When the Bluetooth control section 331 receives the response, itspecifies the different Bluetooth device with which it can communicateand supplies information of the different Bluetooth device as a resultof the inquiry to the display control section 313.

The display control section 313 controls, at step S435, the monitor todisplay a display portion of that musical composition on the image ofthe playlist which corresponds to any device with which Bluetoothcommunication is impossible, for example, in gray display based on theinquiry result supplied thereto from the Bluetooth control section 331.In particular, a portion of the playlist acquired from a device which isnot specified as a device with which communication is possible in theinquiry result from between the playlists displayed as the GUI image isdisplayed in gray. Then, the display control section 313 sets such thatany musical composition displayed in gray may not be selected by theuser at step S436.

When the process at step S436 comes to an end, the display controlsection 313 ends the playlist display control process and returns theprocessing to step S401 of FIG. 23 so that the processes at the stepsbeginning with step S402 are repeated.

In particular, the display control section 313 controls the monitor todisplay the playlists as a GUI image. Thereupon, the display controlsection 313 sets such that only a playlist acquired from any device withwhich Bluetooth communication is possible at present can be selected.For example, otherwise if selection of any music composition ispermitted, then a musical composition whose music data is stored in adevice with which Bluetooth communication is impossible may be selected.In this instance, since reproduction of the musical composition isimpossible, it becomes necessary to carry out selection again for adifferent music composition. In other words, there is the possibilitythat the selection operation of a music composition may becomecumbersome. The display control section 313 can suppress selection of amusical composition which may not be reproduced and facilitate selectionof a musical composition by making it possible to select only a playlistacquired from a device with which Bluetooth communication is possible atpresent as described above.

Further, by displaying a musical composition which may not be selectedin gray, the display control section 313 makes it possible for the user,who tries to select a musical composition, to readily specify anymusical composition which may not be selected and hence any musicalcomposition which can be selected thereby to further facilitateselection of a musical composition.

It is to be noted that, while, in the foregoing description, a musicalcomposition which may not be selected is displayed in gray, musicalcompositions of a playlist may be displayed in any manner only if anymusical composition which can be selected and any musical informationwhich may not be selected can be identified from each other readily. Forexample, any musical composition which may not be selected may not bedisplayed or may be displayed in lower density than any musicalcomposition which can be selected or else may be displayed in a smallersize than any musical composition which can be selected. In other words,any musical composition which may not be selected is displayed in adifferent displaying manner from that of any music composition which canbe selected.

Further, a musical composition may be selected by an arbitrary selectionmethod. For example, a cursor may be displayed in an overlappingrelationship with a playlist such that it is operated by the user andmoved to a display portion of an object musical composition so that themusical composition with which the cursor is overlapped may be selected.In this instance, for example, the cursor may be inhibited from movingto the display portion of any musical composition which may not beselected. Or a message, a picture or the like indicating that selectionis impossible may be displayed when the cursor is moved to the displayportion of any musical composition which may not be selected, or else,inputting of a reproduction instruction may be inhibited. In short, alsothe method for disabling selection may be determined arbitrarily.

Now, details of a flow of processes for music data sharing aredescribed. First, details of processes executed by the portabletelephone set B which is a device on the side which provides music datain the example of FIG. 23 are described with reference to a flow chartof FIG. 26.

If a musical composition is selected on the portable telephone set A,then a connection request for Bluetooth communication is transmittedfrom the portable telephone set A to the portable telephone set B. TheBluetooth control section 331 of the Bluetooth communication section orBT communication section 217 of the portable telephone set B carries outcommunication with the portable telephone set A through the antennasection 332 in response to the connection request to establish a sessionfor Bluetooth communication at step S501.

After the session is established, the Bluetooth control section 331 ofthe Bluetooth communication section 217 receives, at step S502, areproduction request transmitted from the portable telephone set A.After the reproduction request is received, the Bluetooth controlsection 331 of the Bluetooth communication section 217 supplies thereceived reproduction request to the transmission side reproductionprocessing control section 314 at step S503.

The transmission side reproduction processing control section 314 of thedevice control section 301 receives the reproduction request at stepS511 and activates the transmission side player 341 at step S512. Thetransmission side player 341 is activated based on the instruction atstep S521. After the transmission side player 341 is activated, thetransmission side reproduction processing control section 314 of thedevice control section 301 controls the transmission side player 341 atstep S513 to reproduce the musical composition designated in thereproduction request.

The transmission side player 341 acquires the reproduction instructionfrom the transmission side reproduction processing control section 314at step S522 and issues a request for the designated musical compositionto the device memory 302 to carry out a search for the designatedmusical composition at step S523. The device memory 302 acquires therequest at step S531 and reads out, at step S532, music data of thedesignated musical composition and supplies the read out music data as asearch result to the transmission side player 341.

The transmission side player 341 acquires the music data supplied fromthe device memory 302 at step S524 and starts streaming reproduction ofthe music data at step S525. Then, the transmission side player 341supplies the reproduced streaming data to the Bluetooth control section331 at step S526. The Bluetooth control section 331 of the Bluetoothcommunication section 217 acquires the streaming data at step S504 andtransmits the streaming data to the portable telephone set A through theantenna section 332 at step S505.

Now, details of processes executed by the portable telephone set A onthe side which outputs sound of a music composition and corresponding tothe processes described above with reference to FIG. 26 are describedwith reference to a flow chart of FIG. 27.

The reception side reproduction processing control section 315 of thedevice control section 301 displays playlists at step S561 and accepts amusical composition selection instruction at step S562. The processes atsteps S561 and S562 correspond to the processes at steps S401 and S402of FIG. 23, respectively.

After a musical composition is selected, the reception side reproductionprocessing control section 315 of the device control section 301 issuesa request for session connection information necessary to establish asession with the portable telephone set B in which music data of thedesignated music composition are stored to the device memory 302 at stepS563 to carry out a search for the session connection information. Thedevice memory 302 acquires the request at step S541 and reads out therequested session connection information from the storage region andsupplies the session connection information to the reception sidereproduction processing control section 315 at step S542. The receptionside reproduction processing control section 315 of the device controlsection 301 acquires the session connection information at step S564 andsupplies the session connection information to the Bluetooth controlsection 331 at step S565 so that the Bluetooth control section 331carries out setting for Bluetooth communication. The Bluetooth controlsection 331 of the Bluetooth communication section 217 acquires thesetting request from the device control section 301 at step S581 andcarries out setting for the Bluetooth communication at step S582.

The reception side reproduction processing control section 315 of thedevice control section 301 controls the Bluetooth control section 331 toissue a request for connection to the portable telephone set B byBluetooth communication at step S566. The Bluetooth control section 331of the Bluetooth communication section 217 acquires the request at stepS583 and carries out communication with the portable telephone set Bthrough the antenna section 332 to establish a session at step S584.After the session is established, the Bluetooth control section 331 ofthe Bluetooth communication section 217 issues a notification of theestablishment of the session to the reception side reproductionprocessing control section 315 at step S585.

The reception side reproduction processing control section 315 of thedevice control section 301 acquires the notification at step S567 andcontrols the Bluetooth control section 331 at step S568 to issue arequest for reproduction of the musical composition designated by themusical composition selection instruction accepted at step S562. TheBluetooth control section 331 of the Bluetooth communication section 217acquires the reproduction request at step S586 and transmits thereproduction request to the portable telephone set B through the antennasection 332 at step S587.

After the reproduction request is issued, the reception sidereproduction processing control section 315 of the device controlsection 301 activates the reception side player 342 at step S569. Thereception side player 342 is activated under the control of thereception side reproduction processing control section 315 at step S551.

Further, when the portable telephone set B transmits streaming data inresponse to the reproduction request, the Bluetooth control section 331of the Bluetooth communication section 217 of the portable telephone setA receives the streaming data at step S588 and supplies the receivedstreaming data to the reception side player 342 at step S589.

The reception side player 342 acquires the streaming data at step S552and reproduces the acquired streaming data and carries out a soundoutputting process of outputting a sound signal of the streaming data atstep S553.

Sharing of music data is carried out in such a manner as described abovebetween the portable telephone set A and the portable telephone set B.Consequently, only if the users use playlists to designate a musicalcomposition, they can share music data stored in the portable telephonesets of them. Further, since also exchange of the playlists can becarried out only by positioning the apparatus in the proximity of eachother as described above, the users can share music data readily.

It is to be noted that, while the foregoing description is directed tosharing of music data between portable telephone sets, the portabletelephone set 101 can share music data with an apparatus other thanportable telephone sets such as the PC 103, PC 104 and audio device 105by a similar method as described hereinabove with reference to FIG. 1.In other words, it is also possible for an apparatus other than aportable telephone set to share music data with a different apparatus.

In short, while the foregoing description is given of a portabletelephone set, in place of a portable telephone set, an arbitraryinformation processing apparatus such as a PDA, a laptop type personalcomputer, an electronic dictionary or a portable music player can beused to share music data with a different apparatus. For example, alsothe PC 103 of FIG. 1 can share music data with a different apparatussimilarly to the portable telephone set 101.

FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing an example of a configuration of thePC 103 and so forth.

Referring to FIG. 28, the PC 103 has a configuration basically similarto that of the portable telephone set 101 (FIG. 2) and includes a CPU601, a ROM 602, a RAM 603 and a bus 604 corresponding to the CPU 201,ROM 202, RAM 203 and bus 204, respectively. Further, the PC 103 includesan input/output interface 610, an inputting section 611, an outputtingsection 612, a storage section 613, a communication section 614 and adrive 615 corresponding to the input/output interface 210, inputtingsection 211, outputting section 212, storage section 213, wirecommunication section 216 and drive 219, respectively.

The PC 103 is connected to a reader/writer 111 and a Bluetoothcommunication section 112 which correspond to the IC card section 218and Bluetooth communication section 217, respectively. The reader/writer111 has a configuration similar to that of the IC card section 218. Inparticular, the reader/writer 111 includes an IC card control section631, an IC card memory 632 and an antenna section 633. The reader/writer111 and the Bluetooth communication section 112 are connected to theinput/output interface 610.

In short, the PC 103, reader/writer 111 and Bluetooth communicationsection 112 generally have a configuration similar to that of theportable telephone set 101 and can carry out similar processes. In thismanner, some of the components may be formed as an external apparatus.

It is to be noted that, while the foregoing description is directed tosharing of music data, the content data to be shared need not be musicdata but may be of any type such as image data or document data. Alsothe playlist may be any information only if it includes informationrelating to data to be shared.

It is to be noted that, while the series of processes described abovecan be executed by hardware, it may otherwise be executed by software.Where the series of processes is executed by software, a program whichconstructs the software is installed from a program recording mediuminto a computer incorporated in hardware for exclusive use or, forexample, a personal computer for universal use which can execute variousfunctions by installing various programs or into an informationprocessing apparatus or the like of an information processing systemformed from a plurality of apparatus.

The recording medium is formed as such a removable medium 221 or 621 asshown in FIG. 2 or 28 which may be a magnetic disc (including a flexibledisc), an optical disc (including a CD-ROM (Compact Disc-Read OnlyMemory) and a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc)), or a magneto-optical disc(including an MD (MiniDisc) (Registered Trademark of Sony Corporation)),or a semiconductor memory which has the program recorded thereon ortherein and is distributed to provide the program to a user separatelyfrom an apparatus body. Else, the recording medium is formed as the ROM202 or 602, the storage section 213 or 613 or the like in which theprogram is recorded and which is provided to a user in a state whereinthe program is incorporated in an apparatus body.

It is to be noted that, in the present specification, the steps whichdescribe the program recorded in a recording medium may be but need notnecessarily be processed in a time series in the order as described, andinclude processes which are executed in parallel or individually withoutbeing processed in a time series.

Further, in the present specification, the term “system” is used torepresent an entire apparatus composed of a plurality of devices orapparatus.

It is to be noted that an element described as one apparatus in theforegoing description may be divided into a plurality of elementsconfigured as different apparatus. On the contrary, a plurality ofelements described as different apparatus in the foregoing descriptionmay be combined so as to be configured as a single apparatus.Furthermore, naturally it is possible to add some other element orelements than those described hereinabove to the elements of theapparatus described hereinabove. Further, if the configuration andoperation of the entire system are substantially same, then some of thecomponents of a certain apparatus may be included as a component orcomponents of a different apparatus. In other words, the presentinvention is not limited to the embodiment described above, but theembodiment can be modified in various forms without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention.

It should be understood by those skilled in the art that variousmodifications, combinations, sub-combinations and alterations may occurdepending on design requirements and other factor in so far as they arewithin the scope of the appended claims or the equivalents thereof.

1. An information processing apparatus comprising: a proximitycommunication interface configured to receive management data includingat least identification information of content data from a differentdevice by proximity radio communication; circuitry configured to outputa first display based on the management information received by theproximity communication interface, and receive a selection of thecontent data based on the first display; and a wireless communicationinterface configured to send a request for the content datacorresponding to the selection and receive the content datacorresponding to the request by wireless communication, wherein acommunication range of the wireless communication interface is widerthan that of the proximity radio communication interface.
 2. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 1, furthercomprising: a memory configured to store the management informationreceived by the proximity communication interface, wherein the circuitryis configured to output the first display based on the managementinformation stored in the memory.
 3. The information processingapparatus according to claim 2, wherein the proximity communicationinterface is configured to further receive identification information ofthe different device from the different device, and the memory isconfigured to store the management data received by the proximitycommunication interface in relation to the identification information ofthe different device.
 4. The information processing apparatus accordingto claim 1, wherein the circuitry is configured to control reproductionof the content data received by the wireless communication interface. 5.The information processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein thecircuitry is configured to control reproduction of the content data suchthat the content data is reproduced sequentially.
 6. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first displayincludes an image relating to the content data corresponding to theidentification information of content data.
 7. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first displayincludes title information of the content data corresponding to theidentification information of content data.
 8. The informationprocessing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the proximitycommunication interface includes an integrated circuit (IC) chip.
 9. Theinformation processing apparatus according to claim 8, furthercomprising: an antenna, wherein the proximity communication interfacereceives the management information from the different apparatus via theantenna.
 10. The information processing apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the wireless communication interface is a Bluetooth interface.11. An information processing method comprising: receiving managementdata including at least identification information of content data froma device by proximity radio communication; outputting a first displaybased on the management information received; receiving a selection ofthe content data based on the first display; sending a request for thecontent data corresponding to the received selection; and receiving thecontent data corresponding to the request by wireless communication,wherein a communication range of the wireless communication is widerthan that of the proximity radio communication.
 12. The informationprocessing method according to claim 11, further comprising: storing, ina memory, the management information, wherein the outputting includesoutputting the first display based on the management information storedin the memory.
 13. The information processing method according to claim12, further comprising: receiving identification information of thedevice from the device; and storing, in the memory, the management datain relation to the identification.
 14. The information processing methodaccording to claim 11, further comprising: reproducing the content datareceived by the wireless communication.
 15. The information processingmethod according to claim 14, wherein the reproducing includesreproducing the content data sequentially.
 16. The informationprocessing method according to claim 11, wherein the first displayincludes an image relating to the content data corresponding to theidentification information of content data.
 17. The informationprocessing method according to claim 11, wherein the first displayincludes title information of the content data corresponding to theidentification information of content data.
 18. A non-transitoryrecording medium storing a computer readable program that, when executedby a processor of a computer, causes the processor to: receivemanagement data including at least identification information of contentdata from a device by proximity radio communication; output a firstdisplay based on the management information received; receive aselection of the content data based on the first display; send a requestfor the content data corresponding to the received selection; andreceive the content data corresponding to the request by wirelesscommunication, wherein a communication range of the wirelesscommunication is wider than that of the proximity radio communication.